I would like to invite you to Lizard Church. Meet Nyene- she is a leopard spotted gecko given as a gift to my son, Khair. Like all gifts, she is also a responsibility. Nayene needs regular terrarium cleaning, correct temperature maintenance, and recently required intense rehab after a harrowing cat attack. The effort involved in caring for her is certainly worth it. Her sermons are profound and beautifully framed by choral interludes from the crickets she consumes...
Nyene's most holy wisdom is her miraculous ability to shed. She is capable of completely disintegrating the outer layer of herself when it is time to grow. She can patiently bear writhing inside her old skin while stretching herself along frayed edges to find newness. Those two feats alone are incredible. Yet, Nayene's real superpower is that she devours who she once was as nourishment for who she will become. She eats her own shed. She composts herself. She regenerates...
When Khair was very young, he woke up one morning while visiting his grandmother, stepped out of his bedroom, and declared that there was a lizard in her house. She just looked at him with eyebrows raised. Within about five minutes a small gecko ran out from behind the refrigerator in the kitchen. Grandma exclaimed, "Wow, you were right! Did you see him somewhere yesterday?" Khair said, "No, I could hear him..."
Imagine being so sensitive that you can hear a lizard from another room in your house. Imagine being so humble that you can digest who you have been in order to create who you will become. Imagine being so curious that you can learn life lessons from a leopard spotted gecko. If you soften your edges enough, you will hear everything better. Best of all, you will hear yourself and the way the universe speaks to and through you...
I am listening,
Valarie
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