Racoon

There was a racoon who didn't run away, and just shirked when I walked by. I talked to the fisherman and he said there were 2 dead racoons down the path. He even wondered if the 3 hobos living under the bridge had been trapping them. He asked them and they denied it. This guy seemed to shake the in the cold. I thought for a while to call 311, he might be rabid. I searched for a while to see if I could fill out an online form, but I couldn't find it. So I resolved to meditate and if he was still there on the way out, I would definitely call. He wasn't there on the walk out. No point in reporting a sick racoon whereabouts unknown. 

Been thinking about the 3 marks of existence, impermanence, suffering and no permanent self, and this racoon wasn't long for this world, he seemed sick. I watched the second half of Lion King last night. My daughter watched it up to Mufasa being killed, but deprived herself of the recovery from the loss with Hakuna Matata. I had to look at the recovery, and see Simba raise his son the way Mufasa raised him, to the pride. The point is there's a cycle of life. I'm not going to save every sick racoon. 

Henry was in the water today when I arrived for my 20 minute lake meditation. I offset lake meditation with my 30 minutes of anapanasati and the occasional metta, karuna, mudita and upekkha meditations, and pure awareness, and 6 elements. As the sun became more tempting he wrestled his way up onto the reeds and out of the water. He's definitely a sun lover, and will move to the best of his ability as a tortoise to catch sun rays. I was tempted to help him out and lift him into a sunny spot, but invasive red eared tortoise carry many bacteria and germs that don't effect them, but effect humans.

 Today the lake had lots of birds, more than usual. You can hardly see them in this terrible phone camera photo. These perhaps loons sit low in the water and often go under water. There are other birds too, geese, ducks and seagulls. They flew over and then flew away.