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They can still get your attention when they’re trotting along the sidewalk in your neighborhood!
Isn’t our Higher Power great (who I choose to call God) when it/he/she uses humor to get through to us? Like the other morning, for example. I was already ten minutes late driving to meet a friend for an early lunch downtown in the middle of the hustle and bustle and so when I came over the big hill in the cut-through neighborhood and saw a car and van stopped right in the middle talking to each other, I had all kinds of thoughts swirling through my head. Thoughts that I wouldn’t want anyone to hear!
Added to this was five years of accrued opinion and judgment about the kind of people who lived in big shiny new houses in the cut-through neighborhood. I use the excuse of being a writer for the reason that I create all kinds of “stories” about places and people before I even validate if they are true or not which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself at least not until I use those stories to form my opinions. Quite frankly, what I imagine can be so much more entertaining. But, sometimes what I make up can be very off track and full of the plaster of my disbelief that creates a wall between me and others.
Perhaps that is why my Higher Power sent in a pig, trust me the irony is not lost on me.
There I was fuming behind the wheel at the two ladies who had the audacity to continue talking. My slow-burning resentments of false origins were working up to a rolling boil until one of the ladies pointed to the side of my car. I looked over to see a big ole overgrown pink pot-Bellied pig rummaging through the green grass along the sidewalk with his little curly-cue tail switching all over the place. In a matter of seconds, my opinion of the women went from dislike to at least giving them a chance because of their concern for the pig.
I immediately put the car into park so that I could try to herd the pig from going down the street on to the busy highway. One of the ladies was calling the local sheriff, while still another neighbor pulled up to let us know she knew the pig (he was a pet) and was going to get the phone number to call the owner of the ranch nearby. I’ve heard pigs were smart, but right after she told us that the pig lived in the neighboring ranch, he started walking across the street towards the woods backing up to the ranch he came from. I don’t know very much about pigs but I did want to make sure he kept heading towards home instead of the highway. I’m pretty sure I made a spectacle of myself running parallel to this pig when he took off in a trot back towards the highway and began squealing when I ran past him to head him off. Luckily, his owner came along about that time and said, “that’s my pig” and began talking to him as he scratched the pig’s head saying, “Pooper, now what have you gone and done now” (can’t make this stuff up!).
Because I love animals a whole bunch and definitely trust them more than humans, ole Pooper really helped me to lower my wall of judgment and to look with a different eye and an open heart toward these neighbors of mine who took time out of their busy morning to make sure the pig lived to see another day. I mean, pot-bellied pigs are pretty cute when they’re little and cuddly and can roust about within your arms, but when they get to the size of ole Pooper, well it takes a pretty open heart to find its way to enjoying his little maverick spirit.
I’m pretty sure that if there have been angels observing my life and betting on my ability to change my behavior and thinking, that when looking at the hard and fast way that I can put others into a box “just because” those betting that I couldn’t or wouldn’t change probably said, “when pigs fly!” but there must have been at least a few who were betting on my higher self and my ability to lower defenses pretty quickly hence sending out a pig on the run.
