Last night we went and picked up two female guinea pigs and already we are gaining experience. We have named them Medusa and Eve.
Medusa has long hair and is very nasty tempered, hence why we felt Medusa would be an appropriate name.
We gave her a slight haircut around her eyes this morning, hoping that atleast having eye contact with her can start to endear her to us. I asked the mom and daughter we bought them from if they were nice cause they seemed very skittish and determined to avoid human interaction. They assured me that the pigs were very nice, love people, and love being held. I think they might have been lying to me. I think Medusa's got issues for several reasons, such as she and Eve were in such a small cage (I thought) and didn't have a little igloo to hide in. Plus Medusa's long hair really does make her look like some kind of freak pet - she's like a little skunk colored puff ball that goes berserk if it feels anything touching it. Glad we can see her eyes now. She might know she's odd looking and that is why she's self conscious and avoiding contact with us.
Eve is short haired and much nicer than Medusa, so we gave her a nice short name.
Melodie grooming Eve's nails above. Yes, Eve is nice, but the only thing fun about Medusa so far is laughing and shaking our heads and what a weirdo she is.
So, now for today's lesson. Corey and I often joke that so far we think we've been pretty good at creating our own trials and experiences in life, hoping God doesn't feel the need to give us any. If we keep pushing ourselves and learning, doing our own homework enthusiastically on our own, then maybe He'll not feel any need to intervene to help us learn and will go find others who need a little help or motivation to do their class work. That being said, these new guinea pigs we picked up last night have already reinforced in me great valuable lesson.
"Leave it alone." The several times last evening when we tried to touch or hold Medusa, I was thinking I'd call back the lady and demand to return these girls. Just crossed my mind briefly as my knee jerk reaction to help me deal with my newly found stress, but I'm sure that would only create a hassle and confrontation and make the lady feel bad, and this isn't that big of a deal, it's just guinea pigs... I can handle this, right? I got some perspective as I remembered the story quoted below~
My
life was changed by a saintly patriarch. He married his sweetheart.
They were deeply in love, and soon she was expecting their first child.
The
night the baby was born, there were complications. The only doctor was
somewhere in the countryside tending to the sick. After many hours of
labor, the condition of the mother-to-be became desperate. Finally, the
doctor was located. In the emergency, he acted quickly and soon the baby
was born, and the crisis, it appeared, was over. But some days later,
the young mother died from the very infection that the doctor had been
treating at another home that night.
The
young man’s world was shattered. As the weeks wore on, his grief
festered. He thought of little else, and in his bitterness he became
threatening. Today, no doubt, he would have been pressed to file a
malpractice suit, as though money would solve anything.
One night a knock came at his door. A little girl said simply, “Daddy wants you to come over. He wants to talk to you.”
“Daddy”
was the stake president. The counsel from that wise leader was simply
“John, leave it alone. Nothing you do about it will bring her back.
Anything you do will make it worse. John, leave it alone.”
This
had been my friend’s trial. How could he leave it alone? A terrible
wrong had been committed. He struggled to get hold of himself and
finally determined that he should be obedient and follow the counsel of
that wise stake president. He would leave it alone.
He
said, “I was an old man before I understood and could finally see a
poor country doctor—overworked, underpaid, run ragged from patient to
patient, with little medicine, no hospital, few instruments, struggling
to save lives, and succeeding for the most part. He had come in a moment
of crisis, when two lives hung in the balance, and had acted without
delay. I finally understood!” He said, “I would have ruined my life and
the lives of others.”
Many times he had thanked the Lord on his knees for a wise priesthood leader who counseled simply, “John, leave it alone.”
Yes, my family is safe and everything is still fine. This "big deal" is just guinea pigs. I can't find the quote now, but Eckhart Tolle wrote something in his book
A New Earth that I've remembered along the lines of "There are no 'problems' in life, there are situations, situations to be dealt with" and that we add the drama (I might review that book, it's got some thought provoking ideas, but mostly I found it to be his opinions presented as truth with a few quotes from the Savior or scriptures to validate them. Some good stuff, but false teachings too. Anyway...) So, none of my children are in danger, we're not
starving, my marriage is strong. Life is good, and these guinea pigs
are small potatoes. I can figure this out, I can handle this.
So last night as the evening progressed and we continued to see Medusa's unkind temperment, seriously she wouldn't let me touch her, she didn't bite or anything, but I was chasing her all over the yard thinking "Fine! You don't want to come into the safety of your cage for the night, that's just fine my me, I'll leave you to the fox, you little miss attitude..." Plus, after we let the boys meet the girls, it was like a switch went off and I worried that I had robbed my family of the sweet innocent boy pigs we had and had created two man pigs with appetites that would now forever dominate their behavior. Butterfinger was going nuts when we separated the boys and girls.
Mel cried a little and we both went to bed feeling a pit in our stomachs, wishing we could just go back in time and not even have bought the girls. I put them up for free on the classifieds where I bought them and figured "Ok, we'll just try to give them away and chock that up as a learning experience." We all had a sleepover in my room and in the morning, with the sun shining, we woke up with lighter hearts and attitudes and went to check on the pigs and all is well. The men came home from their camp outing and were excited, I showed our new pets to Corey who looked at Medusa the puff flopping around on the grass and looked at it with one eyebrow raised saying "That.... is not normal." We spent some time with them and Abi was able to pick up and hold Medusa, I was so impressed. Now Lily can to, so I think we'll be able to get to know them and have them get used to us and we're all feeling better about things. So there is our first lesson learned from these pigs - to stay calm and not worry, things will work out, don't feed your worries and concerns, turn them off and learn to just trust that you can handle it and will learn from it.
I'm sure we'll have more pig lessons to share as the summer progresses!
