I knelt down to gather up the shimmery blue-black raven feather lying in the dirt lane. Reaching with outstretched arm, the feather at my fingertips, I imagined the wonder of wings and lifting into the air to take flight.

With gratitude for the gift, I tucked the feather in my pouch. Curiosity sparked and expanded my awareness into the worlds all around. What were the Raven Spirits up to? Why had they left this feathery hint of their presence as I began my morning walk?

At the end of the road and the edge of the woods, I heard Raven calling to my attention. To bring myself fully here in the now. Not out of fear. Not due to dangers. Opening the eyes of my heart would weave intimate connections with the mysteries and magic and tenderness and beauty as I continued on my way.

Following winding paths through the junipers and pines, I walked around a bend in the arroyo and saw a rabbit lying on the ground. A gentle breeze brushed through the rabbit’s downy fur. I stopped in my tracks, whispering a greeting. Was she injured? In shock? Had she died?

I could see the rabbit’s souful eye facing skyward and touched by the glow of the morning sun. The rabbit blinked. Once. Then again. And again. She was alive.

I took a few steps to create a wider berth, opening ample space so my presence wouldn’t be a distress. The rabbit’s instinct was to run. But she was in a tender healing process of some kind. Her long velvety ears and obsidian eyes were sensing far beyond what I could hear and see. Standing in the stillness, I wondered how I could help.

Suddenly her legs began moving in the rhythmic pattern of a rabbit bounding across the land. The bunny remained in place, lying on her side on the earth. Although she couldn’t get up on her feet, her body and spirit knew precisely how to run free.

Her tawny legs and padded paws pushed against the sandy soil, creating momentum that propelled her body around in a circle where she lay. With a few graceful strides, her soft belly and outstretched legs came around again facing toward me. Her front legs stretched all the way forward and her back legs stretched all the way back, held for a few moments in a grand and glorious leap. Rabbit’s body then relaxed and gently settled into the earth.

She breathed out her very last breath running toward the great mystery. She gracefully leapt from physical existence into spirit, returning home. She found her way back to the universe of potentials, carrying everything she’d learned in her lifetime as a rabbit living in the high desert mountains on a planet called earth.

Standing in the spaciousness of her death passage, I felt beyond-words awe in the extraordinary moment we’d just shared. Sprinkling tobacco offerings around her and the place where she’d made her leap, I honored her free spirit and the soft animal body she left behind.

Rooted earth-side of the doorway Rabbit had leapt through, I wondered what she now knew. The great mystery was no longer such a mystery to her. What had been unknown was being experienced and becoming more known.

Looking around for materials for a burial ceremony, I pulled strips of cushiony bark from fallen tree branches. Tucking the bark blanket beneath her body, I spoke softly to Rabbit about her beauty, her intelligence, her remarkable grace. Carrying her light-as-a-feather body, I nestled her inside a hollow in the sandy bank of the arroyo. A protective wrapping of stones was set in place to hold sacred her burial grounds.

Rabbit has stayed close in my awareness in the days since we met. I’m still gathering up the gifts of being entrusted to be part of her dance with death. Death is part of living. Grieving is part of our healing.

Rabbit is showing how companionship and care can readily come alive even in unexpected crossings of diverse life paths. We can tend to one another with love and respect, offering ourselves and each other ample space to find our way. Whoever we are. Wherever we’ve been. Wherever we’re headed. How and when and why we’re seeking to go.

The gentle bunny rabbit is a powerful teacher about leaping into the mystery and stretching toward the unknowns. Gracefully. Creatively. Courageously. With pure passion for living fully until our very last breath.

The medicines of Rabbit are living on, wild and free, bounding around in my heart.