Postscript: In the wake of Butterfly People and appearances beyond the pale … a story told by Ted McNamara (Parabola, Summer2012):
“What do I remember about that summer? The ending of a marriage, the returning raw to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, passing through the sweltering city heat receiving one day, one hour, one moment as it came, trying to remain sober…I kept on walking, not denying the pain, simply letting it pass through the body, and then one morning in the midst of it all, the fox came.
I remember sitting in the garden with my eyes closed, in the precious light-time before the first stirrings of dawn. When my eyes opened they met his, sitting gazing up ever so quietly by my feet…everything is in movement, and at the appointed moment the animal rose and slipped away. I remained a long while close to the feeling that I had received the gift of attentive company.
The days passed and to both my surprise and wonder, each day he would return to join me in my sitting, and gradually he would stay longer. I would go about my work, and he would sleep by the bamboo or in the honeysuckle…in time he followed me through the French windows and slept by my bed.
One day during the cooling of September he was not to be seen, neither the next, or for days after. Then came a morning in early October, his head peeped through the whispering floor length curtains. There was such a joyful reception in me for him, and all the more when I stepped onto the veranda to see a young vixen. They playfully stayed awhile. She remained back a little, but he came right up, and I stroked him. Then he turned, and together they traveled away.
The years have passed and sometimes I wonder why he came and went, the silence given silently by a living friend, and I was helped to be in my aloneness that memorable summer.”
vitalwholeness 