One morning, in the spring of 2004, I opened my window blinds, sat down at my desk in front of the window, and glanced out to look at the lawn and pond. Several yards in front of the window, I saw a tiny bunny hovering over the body of a full-grown rabbit. The rabbit had apparently died in a small indentation, about a yard across, in the ground. Throughout the day, I watched as the young bunny ran back and forth over and over across the lawn chasing away a large bird that was trying to get at the dead rabbit.
When not chasing the bird, the bunny bit off mouthfuls of the tall grass growing in the indentation, went to the rabbit, and placed the grass on top of the body. The process took considerable time, as the bunny had to keep chasing off the hungry bird at the same time. The bunny was still trying to fend off the bird when I shut my window blinds that evening.
One morning in the spring of 2005, I saw a grown rabbit hop straight to the spot where the other rabbit had been buried. The rabbit rearranged what remained of the still discernible mound of grass and then hopped back the way it had come from around the side of the building. I did not see the rabbit in 2006, nor in 2007 as I was then working in another room.
It is now spring, 2008. Late Monday night, I returned to the US from two months in Australia. Tuesday, I woke up in the afternoon trying to readjust to a very different time zone. Wednesday was my first morning in about eighteen months to work at my desk in my old spot in front of the window.
The thick grass outside my window was deep and due for the weekly cutting. I could still see the spot where the rabbit had died for the grass has yet to cover the “burial mound.” As I watched, I saw a rabbit come around from the side of the building and hop straight to the spot. It remained a few seconds and hopped off a bit to the left of the spot. Then it hopped straight back to the spot, rearranged some of the dead grass, paused a few seconds, and hopped right back the way it had come from around the side of the building.
Affinities span many lifetimes. They do not involve just human beings. And just as humans can be filial children, other beings can as well.