Yesterday a pair of bunnies I bought for $17 arrived. They made me feel better immediately. For as long as I can remember we had a little soapstone bunny that migrated around the house depending on the need to keep a door open, to make an Easter decoration, to make a child giggle when they found it under a chair in a corner where they had been banished because they were interrupting the adults. The little bunny was deeply embedded in our lives. It often lived at the end of a bookshelf in the living room where there was a tiny space between the length of the book case and the edge of the door where it turned into our 1/2 bath/laundry room/hall to the porch.

When we were cleaning out my Grandmother’s apartment after she died I found three bunny salt shakers. I don’t know why but they caught my attention. I put them into our box and they came home with us. We used them for spring tables, often letting them just peak out from under a flower arrangement on the table. You could put salt and pepper in them but liked them because they were sweet and reminded me of the softens of life.

When the fire came there were a few things to managed to survive at least i identifiable parts. A couple of mugs, a plate burned to oblivion, a melted mass of what was a mass of sterling silver flatware that had also come from my grandmother.

After the fire we bought underwear and socks and such. I found the little white bunnies shown in the photo on ebay. I thought they were like my bunnies that died but they are much smaller. The big bunnies in the photo looked about like they are but I was relieved these were pretty much what I thought. I put the large ones on the table so my spouse could see them.

After a day it seemed to me that small bunnies, also on the table. I nestled them all together and in my spirit they were together. They are a family. The new bunnies arrived to find a loving home and the shy new baby bunnies had a big-bunny shelter. The burned bunny who had  endured the heat of the fire and was reglazed by the durst in the air and the red fire retardant forever burned into its body, looked relieved and less stressed. It had been burned and changed and foever was a at home among friends.

So, our little bunny, white and now gray-black with red and who will remain disabled its whole life. He is welcomed and even revered I this house and allay will be. He has  has taught us about our selves and about love. He has passed through the crucible and emerged changed but whole. He is more real than ever before. We too have passed through the crucible and we too are more real too.