Times that I’ve been invisible

“You guys want to hear about times when I turned invisible?!”  This is a catchy line that I’ve used to get kids to settle down for a story.  It never fails.

I think animals are very attuned to the “vibes” that people put off.  In my close encounters with animals I was always putting off the same vibe.  Very mellow, happy and relaxed.  And no thoughts in my head.  Sometimes it seems like animals hear thoughts louder than spoken words.

Here are three examples of times I “turned invisible”.

The first happened when I was living in Colorado. I was sitting on the intramural sports field at CSU watching the moon rise. It was a huge beautiful yellow moon coming up on the horizon. It was pretty late, probably 11 or 12 at night. As I sat there taking in the colors of the moon and the sounds of the night and feeling the wet grass on my legs I saw something bobbing out of my peripheral vision. I realized something was coming towards me but I didn’t want to look over. I sat there watching the bobbing get bigger until it was right in front of me. A long legged, scrawny red fox. It came right up to my outstretched feet and started sniffing them. I sat there watching. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. To have a truly wild animal right there sniffing my feet was awesome. After a few good sniffs it had enough and continued on its way. I watched it trot off and went back to my moonrise, totally blown away by what just happened.

One morning in New York state I went for a walk. It was early summer and the grass was all covered in dew. Up ahead on the trail I saw two baby bunnies playing. I stood very still, relaxed myself, opened up my peripheral vision and all of my senses and just waited. I knew already that animals were drawn to this kind of energy. Ten or fifteen minutes later the bunnies were at my feet licking my toes and chewing on my sandals. Eventually they must have picked up my scent cause they took off in a flash all of the sudden.

Another afternoon in New Hampshire I was sitting in my backyard flint knapping. I thought this experience was interesting because I wasn’t being still or quiet at all. I was banging rocks together. However my energy was the same. I had no thoughts in my head. I was totally absorbed in the process of trying to make something beautiful when I heard fluttering and felt something on my head. I waited, wondering if what I thought had happened, had really just happened when a little tufted titmouse flew off my head, down to my feet and started hopping around.

All of these experiences are very special to me but I don’t think that I’m special because I get to have them. Nature opens up to anyone willing to be patient and pay attention and no matter how long you have to wait, its always more than worth it.