The Fox in our Garden
… lessons from a furry nomad
Over the years, we have seen roaming urban foxes, sometimes in pairs, mostly solo, looking rather famished and worn out. I feel pity for them as they look unwanted, wandering from household to household bins for scraps, skinny, and fearful of close human contact. Most don’t have the graceful panache tail that is romanticised in children’s books or the glistening red fur.
Greed or Feed?
It is almost like some foxes carry their sadness around and one cannot help feel pity for them: unwanted, rejected, conniving, as portrayed in Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, out to get food from us, overindulgent humans! The farmers are seen as greedy and gluttonous and the cunning Mr Fox is out there to teach them a lesson on the ugliness of greed. However, is it right to steal to feed your children? It opens a line of thinking in our current climate, where many feel that governments have been wasting resources over the years whilst keeping the economically challenged men and women marginalised. However, do we need to wake the Fox in us to make inspire governments to work with and for the people and perhaps not impose or work against society? After all, feeding our children should not be a favour, we all want to be empowered to do the right thing for our children and society. Stealing or corruption to maintain a vicious cycle of maintaining greed, should certainly not become the norm.
Tame for society?
On the other hand, could they just be so misunderstood as Antoine de St Exupery depicts in the beloved The Little Prince? “I am not tamed”, says the Fox to the lonely Little Prince as he craves the companionship of a friend. Which pushes the Prince to ask the question, “What does that mean — ‘tame’?”. In fact, it is a question that we can all ask ourselves, do we ever become tame or what tames us? Of course, there is parental guidance and conforming to the norms demanded by our society which many perhaps now question: are we pre-formatted? Our thinking, actions, education, are we allowed freedom in creativity and thinking, or do we just follow the straight and narrow in order to achieve success? Is that success measured by our ability to selfishly accumulate immeasurable status or material goods or are we measured by accomplishment to achieve a shift for the betterment of humanity? Perhaps it is important to have a balance of both as there is nothing wrong with living in a good neighbourhood and providing the best education for our children. After all, isn't that why we work so hard for? To provide the best for our children, but can we also evaluate ourselves as we do so? To strive to become more enlightened men and women for them, in wisdom and consciousness?
Beauty in human relationships?
The Fox also raises the question of stronger and deeper interhuman connections. Do we accumulate friends to increase our contact lists with ulterior career or personal motives or do build a network of pure souls who we rise with and learn from as we evolve? Do some swing from relationship to relationship to maintain a certain image or because of an inability to commit or sanctify relationships? With a rise in breakdowns of many relationships, I often question whether we emphasise too much on logic and rigidity in our thinking rather than focus on what truly makes a good harmonious relationship. Have we been imposing conditions, needs, wants and expectations, rather than just accepting that nothing and no one is ever going to be perfect. After all, no one is indispensable and we all evolve at different levels as we mature. Do we enter transactions or live a life with just a series of compromise to maintain a facade in society? It is an open-ended question and there is no right answer. I do believe though that we all need solid people around us, a good network of soul mates, soul family members, who vibe at similar frequencies and who carry the same values. Good souls, one knows one can evolve with! One of Fox’s message to the Prince is to see with the heart, that only the heart can truly see clearly because often the eyes miss what is important. We can look at people, like what we see, like what they bring to the table but do we truly see people? I believe that if we shed egos, our needs, our wants, we can see one another; to me, that is the most beautiful relationship we can have with each other.
Our Graceful Fox…Cookie
In all my ramblings, I forgot the true heroine of the story: Our very own Fox. Well, I say ‘Our’ as clearly she cannot ever be ours, she belongs to no one. She is a beautiful free spirit and we are honoured to host her. Our love for one another is truly unconditional, she’ll get food from a neighbour (hopefully), whilst I am hoping our small grassy patch is comfortable enough for her, for the cold evenings. I also hope she graces us with her presence most evenings and mornings and who knows, with a few cubs? She is a real beauty, but I truly saw her grace as she stared at me this morning, smiling (yes I swear she did) before she jumped over the fence. I thanked her and perhaps she did so too? SO I have a moment with a beautiful, majestic, and not quite tamed Fox. Of course, my Flower Angel has named her Cookie and now wants to build her a den for rainy days and for when Cookie has her babies.
