Thursday, October 01, 2009

i did a very brave thing today!

and i'm posting twice in one day! woah! the brave thing was i rescued a snake. YEAH. i know ME, and a SNAKE. for those of you who have not had the pleasure of being around me and a snake at the same time let me explain: i hate them. yes, i realize admitting this is embarrassing. i like to think of myself as loving god's creation and being pretty savvy in the outdoors. but when it comes to those long, appendage-less critters i get pretty jumpy. maybe it stems from the numerous times my cousins and older sister chased me around the yard with snakes, or the time i ran out of our class field trip to the bean museum crying because of a big boa . . . i don't know what it is, but they give me the creepy crawleys. however, this spring in costa rica, one night an older gentleman named bob with an adorable lisp stopped by the place we were staying on his way back from snake hunting. not hunting to kill, just to look. and that night he had been looking for a bushman- only the second most poisonous snake IN THE WORLD!!! but bob inspired me. he told me a story of how he had hated snakes until he was 30, and one day he decided to try and like them, and started touching and holding them when given the chance, and then he started to realize how beautiful they are, and started looking for them, seeking them out. now, that's how he spends his evenings, searching for, catching, examining and appreciating snakes. and since i turned 30, i decided i should do the same. the next day in cr, tr and i came across this beauty in the jungle, tr almost stepped on it! but i tried to stay calm and just appreciate how pretty the pale blue skin was and how gracefully it meandered across the trail.
and then today, i took my hiking class up box canyon, in maple canyon, and i found the tiniest most helpless little snake, who at first appeared to be dead. turns out it was just so cold it was having trouble moving. so i carefully scooped it up, put it on my water bottle and promptly walked it ten minutes to a warm sunny rock. i'm nowhere near ready to go seeking out the bushman, but it was a big step in the right direction.

2 comments:

T.R. said...

It's bushmaster, btw.

As I recall I was so freaked out by the snake in the first photo that I wanted to turn around after that, which was weird because it was the only time I have ever been freaked out by snake.

But then we saw the bigger, faster snake! There's no escaping snakes, I guess.

"You knew what I was when you picked me up."

kate said...

sounds frighteningly near a death wish for that guy to go searching for the SECOND MOST POISONOUS SNAKE IN THE WORLD. I'd be freaking.

I would also like to echo T.R.'s statement about "you knew what I was when you picked me up" --hear Packard's voice every time you befriend one of these "friends"