I have just had the most unsettling experience. I have recently started a regular pest control service and in the initial consultation had to come face to face with something I simply have zero desire to extend love to. Rats. We have noticed the odd rodent scampering down a vine in our yard when our dog Rugby immediately announces the alarm bark . I also have noticed cobwebs, spiders etc and thought it was time to get our service back. As I was sitting there smiling while the nice man described all the horrible things rats do (according to the pest control guy they are vile eating/pooping machines) and if I knew what was good for the health of my family I would severely cut back my trees, vines and get rid of the wisteria all together. So here I am, in the middle of my twelvemonth of extending love to my fears and I have really hit a snag. I don’t want to extend love to rats. I don’t even know what this would look like. I have a cartoon frame in my mind of me sitting in lotus position on a chair with eyes closed extending the quality of GET LOST to the rats.
Extend love to rats??? Hah!
What I did when I came back to my office after this “getting to know your property” appointment was to use my blog as I suggest my readers do. I was in a creepy frame of mind (complete with chills and abject revulsion), imagining the rats banding together and taking over and I was contemplating moving to the desert where no trees would touch my house, thereby allowing the varmits access. Instead of moving to Arizona, I opened my blog for inspiration (I extend blog to this thought?;) and looked at the tags and chose doubt because I definitely doubted my desire or ability to extend love to rats. Then I chose the blogpost “How Do I Love Thee?” because I knew of no quality of love that fit the lowness of rats. I began to feel my self again after reading this post. Ahhhhhhhh…………..This lovely, very apropos reminder that I can (and AM, in fact) love in all conditions was all I needed. To be reminded that I AM love and even that rats are made of love too. They serve a purpose. I also feel quite comfortable in my guidance to keep my house and property as pest free as possible. All these things can work together for good and be love at the same time. I don’t have to know right now how it all works out or if these rats are angels with really believable disguises but I can know that extending love helps restore me to peace and clarity and the chills and revulsion are gone too. Go figure.
Let your willingness lead you.
Loved the process you shared for using your blogposts in this way…
Kim is an amazing role model for extending love to rats….and their Green products are great for animals and humans….perhaps their way of extending love…(green/heart chakra)
http://kimsheridan.com
Thanks for sharing this link! What a great photo of Kim and “her beloved rat”!! Way to extend love Kim:) Glad you enjoyed the process I shared Sally. xoxo
Perhaps you could view it as extending love to the trees (and the corgis) and just dispense with the rats altogether. Sort of like purchasing carbon offsets – I’m going to eliminate you, but I’m going to make the yard look really gorgeous in exchange for your habitat!
You are too funny;) xoxoxoxox
Thank you its awesome hearing about your own experience with truth and your own feelings toward rats it lets me now mine arent so bad and i don’t have to “shoot” myself for it lol
No shooting needed;) It is a relief to find a fellow sufferer. There are so many forgiveness opportunities aren’t there?:) xo
I am not there with you, Eva, in thought. I struggled with a terrifying fear of rodents, mice & rats since childhood. In the bible somewhere there is a verse that says something like” my heart faileth from fear”. That has been me and the mice or rats. There were field rats that were plentiful in my childhood and would get into our house.
Oh those old early memories mark us for so long. Just practice extending love to something more accessible for you, the evening news, or how annoyed you feel when the toast burns. All extending love reminds us we are, in fact, love. xo