My daughter reported seeing a bunny on her walk today in Utah.  She was walking with long strides, hoping to self-induce labor (it would be very cool for her baby to be born tomorrow on Ultimate Pi Day).  I feel like the 2000-mile difference in our locations is more like infinity.  I’m waiting for my spring break to travel so that I can stay a longer time with her.  However, her bunny sighting instantly closed the distance-gap.  I “trained” my kids to report all wildlife sightings because it made me happy and because I always felt that it was important for children to observe and notice the natural world.  To take none of it for granted.  To appreciate beauty every chance they got.

I remembered driving my children to and from sports practices at twilight–a time we came to call “bunny time.”  We’d roll the windows down, smell the fresh air, and call out, “It’s bunny time!”  There were certain places in our routine travels where we could expect to see bunnies at twilight, especially during the spring when new grass and young, green shoots lured them from forest thickets.  Now that over-development has caused such imbalances in our local eco-system, I am more likely to see a fox than I am to see a bunny.  I miss the bunnies, but not as much as I miss my kids.

I have noticed the bluebirds are returning.  What a treat it is to see a flash of blue.