Me too!

What are we doing to make a difference?

Amma

I am finding the more I meditate, the more space I have. The more space I have, I have room to stop and think, to respond instead of just react. This has been a nice change.

I work at an animal rehabilitation center in norther Wisconsin, and constantly try to give every patient and person I encounter with lovingkindness and respect. This may sound easy, or expected, but dealing with people who hunt, or boys who shoot squirrels, or those who, with the best intentions, have kept wild animals (illegally) in captivity until they are too sick to be saved, truly tests my limits on a daily basis. Giving every ounce of my love and effort to every animal that passes through the doors, even though some are obviously unsalvageable or I wonder why I try (for instance, many people ask me why we rehab field mice or (nest-parasitic) cowbirds) is draining and often seemingly futile. I meditate whenever I remember to and have a spare moment, which isn't nearly as much as I'd like, and can feel the tension and anger melt away. I try and radiate love and positive energy, and I know this has a positive effect on both the public that I deal with every day, the animals, and my co-workers. I have coined a new euphemism for euthanizing an animal at our clinic, which has now spread through the center... We don't kill the animal, we 'turn it into a butterfly.' This work is physically and emotionally taxing, but I believe that with lovingkindness, respect, and effort, we can make a difference in the individual lives of animals and the collective understanding of the public.

Lately, other than being impoverished via my job at Tuesday Morning LLC, I have been waging a war against my “green cancer” of a lawn. I have successfully removed about one-quarter to one-third of the lawn in my backyard in order to replace it with a much more productive, enjoyable and ecologically friendly vegetable garden and “cat jungle”. I have basically been tearing the turf right out. All the sod produced by this is far to heavy to be thrown in the garbage can like my neighbors do. Thankfully I live close to a greenbelt with a small creek. My neighbors always dump hundreds of thousands of sticks and pounds upon pounds of dry plant material in huge heaps on the steep banks of that creek. One neighbor has been placing his refuse specifically to deny access to the creek from land he does not own. So, I dumped all the sod right on top of the sticks and branches with the idea of compacting them down so that people can have access to the creek again. Well, today I used the sod steps and noticed something amazing at the base of the sod/branch mounded embankment: garter snakes. There were probably ten or fifteen basking themselves on the branches that protruded from the bottom of the mound. When they saw me they quickly slithered back into the sod mound. I have decided to stop using the sod mound as steps at least until spring brings the warmth back in order to avoid crushing any snakes under the mound. So my efforts have not only improved my yard but have also provided a warm sod house for snakes to live in this winter. The branches at the bottom prevented the sod from reaching all the way down creating a perfect entrance to the sod snakehouse and they also create the actual pockets under the mound that the snakes actually live in, the dirt in the sod will act as a thermal insulator and the rotting grass will provide extra heat. The same jerk neighbor has also erected a chain-link fence extending from his legal property all the way to the creek’s water line to keep people from walking around down in the creek. It really isn’t too hard to swing yourself around it to get to the other side so I’m thinking of using it as a guerilla gardening trellis in the spring and if he sabotages that, his chain-link fence may have to perform a magical vanishing act.

Taking and giving practice has been very beneficial to others in my life and to my own development along the path. Giving Dharma can be as easy as whispering mantras into the wind. Helping out at your Dharma center or volunteering can be another simple way to give.