A Recurring Rabbit

Tonight, on my way home from the group meditation practice, I spotted a rabbit who was bounding out from a hedge onto the sidewalk in front of me. I was terrified that the rabbit would become frightened of me and run into the oncoming traffic, so I just froze and looked at it for a while. Just in the distance, a bicyclist was just about to cross the dangerous intersection on a red light, causing the car in front of him to honk several times. The rabbit was meanwhile very petrified, and did not flinch! Finally, I was able to shoo the rabbit back to the safety of the bushes. Life, it seems, is very perilous.
   This is not the first time that I had seen a rabbit in the neighborhood, and I sometimes wonder what it means to be visited upon by the same creatures many times. I believe that sometimes recurring visitors from other realms (in this case an animal one) can remind people of many things, among them the sacredness of life and how miraculous living beings are even when they are not necessarily tied to status or being part of a rat race (pardon the pun). They are also ways to connect lovingly with the universe that aren't necessarily expected.
    The other day, I saw a barrel of live blue crabs in a supermarket, waiting to be bought and cooked by the passing customers. One of the crabs was turned on its back, and all I could see was a kind of moving bubble of water on its mouth. That moving bubble made me feel very sad for this being's suffering as well as recognizing that all living things need the basic necessities, such as air and water, for their survival. In that tiny moment, I learned a lot about sentient beings because my heart was moved to see them in a certain way, particularly as painfully vulnerable. In those flash moments of compassion, the hardness within me naturally seems to dissolve away.
    Repetitions of encounters might also be a symbolic reminder of unfinished business. What better way to remind us of our own recurring challenges than the recurrence of an ethical dilemma? These situations might be seen as wake up calls, as well as calls to simplify one's life to find new solutions in the natural world.