I love my house. I love being surrounded by trees and nature. I love that I can see the stars at night and the quiet stillness. For the most part, I love the wildlife. Over the years we’ve had some strange experiences with animals—even while living in the middle of a city; birds, mice, squirrels, opossums, skunks, and now snakes!
Snakes don’t bother me. I’ve gone out with herpetologists and other biologists to FIND and COLLECT various animal species, including snakes. Here’s a picture of me with a cute hog nose. HOWEVER, when you come across them in your house, it’s a completely different story, especially when they’re 5+ feet long!
It was a typical day. I was attempting to do some spring cleaning and de-cluttering when my son came into my bedroom to tell me that there was a snake under his desk. I was picturing a cute little baby rat snake that I could simply pick up and throw over our fence. What I found was a full-grown rat snake that was cornered and ready to strike! After several attempts to take a picture of our uninvited houseguest to send to my husband, I called animal control. That’s when it disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the hallway on the other side of the house. THAT was not expected. It proceeded to slither behind my washer and dryer where Animal Control was able to eventually pull it out—it decided to wrap its tail around the underside of the washer so it couldn’t be moved.
Approximately 30 minutes later my kids went downstairs to play video games. They were back upstairs 10 seconds later. There was ANOTHER FULL-SIZE SNAKE stretched out on the tile!!! At that point we packed bags and headed to my mom’s for the night—barely escaping a wall cloud/tornado that started to develop within miles of our house! Welcome to my life!
As if the ridiculously entertaining (or frightening) story weren’t enough, there is a reason and a lesson for you in all of it. At this point in my life, and after an uncountable series of unexpected events such as this, all I can do is laugh and find the humor in it all. Life is always throwing curve balls. There is ALWAYS something unexpected bound to happen. That’s the Universe’s way of getting our attention. We’re being shaken out of a rut. Maybe we didn’t even know we were in one.
When we’re handed unexpected experiences, and most of the time they’re not pleasurable, it does no good to freak out, stress out, and go in to reactionary mode where we take every emotion that we’re feeling in that time out on whomever is around. That makes the situation worse.
I have found that once I get over the initial reaction to whatever has happened—generally surprise—it is best to take a large, deep breath and sink into my body.( If emotions arise, I let them flow. The great thing about emotions is they only last for about 90 seconds if you let them process through your body. They cause issues when you stuff them and prevent them from coming out.) That really grounds me and I can then respond in a way that is more helpful and productive. One where I can problem solve through whatever is going on whether it’s a snake in the house, an “M&M’s volcano” that erupted in a bedroom, a flooded basement, a stolen trailer, or a tornado that plowed through my kids’ school with them in it.
Once the initial threat/response is dealt with, the next and most important step is I get curious. I ask the questions that will allow me to find the answers or solve the problems. I’m a pretty deep thinker so I question all levels. For example, What is the good in this situation? How did the snakes get in? Why did they come in? What can we do to keep them away? What is this situation telling me? What area of my life needs a shake-up? What is the meaning of the snake? How does snake energy apply to my life right now? How do I integrate this new information? And so on. From this perspective I feel well-quipped to take the necessary actions and adjustments.
There’s a lot of information and new understanding that can be revealed from these unexpected situations when we’re able to see them as more than just added stress or just another thing to deal with. I want to know: What is the craziest thing that’s happened to you? How do you usually deal with unexpected event? Comment below or shoot me an email.