Of Bunnies and Daisies

May you rest peacefully sweet Brownie. We enjoyed three short weeks with you, our lop-eared bunny. Isaiah loved picking you out of the various assortment of bunnies at our local "chicken swap". He named you. And we took you home where you lived out your three weeks of bunny bliss alternating between our house and outside. You loved lettuce, fruit loops, hay, and clover. Isaiah enjoyed cuddling with you every evening. You were a sweet pet.

The day we brought you home...

Brownie was tiny. Isaiah got to hold her on our way home.

She even got to run into the Dollar Tree with us, and Mawmaw
helped her cuddle in Isaiah's shirt.

Adventures with Brownie:

Isaiah helped give brownie a bath.

Isaiah liked to cuddle with Brownie...

And again...

Even cousin Mason got in on the action...

You didn't know what to do when we first put
you into your outside cage... But eventually you came around,
and ended up loving it.

Brownie, you will be missed (for at least a week)... And thanks to you, Isaiah got to experience death first hand.

A note about his experience, and things I learned: Isaiah knew what death was, but it wasn't real until Brownie died. It wasn't real until we had her funeral, that Isaiah realized she wasn't going to wake up. Brownie went to Heaven. And I am not going to crush Isaiah's spirit by telling him otherwise. I always thought my pets went to Heaven and it had no adverse effects on me when I realized they didn't. Sometimes there are no words. Nothing I said would make the situation better. We buried our bunny, and covered her grave with daisies.

Isaiah cried.
And cried...
And cried some more.

For at least two hours, if not longer. I tried to get him to play with the neighborhood kids to no avail. He didn't want a snack. Or a popsicle. No words would comfort his broken heart. He finally wanted a drink, so we went inside to get a drink. Once inside, little man laid himself down on the couch and sobbed his little heart out. And, I learned in that moment that sometimes the best thing you can do to soothe a grieving heart, is to lay down and cry too. And that is exactly what I did. I crawled beside him on the couch, held him close, and cried with him.

No words. Just be there. Just cry. Because in that moment, he needed that more than anything else. More than, "It will be okay." To which his response was, "Its not okay. My bunny died!" And he was right. It wasn't okay. It will be okay one day, but in those moments, it wasn't.

Honestly, I wasn't that devastated. I know that seems coarse, but I wasn't that attached to Isaiah's pet rabbit. She was sweet, and it was sad, but I wasn't broken hearted. However, when I looked into Isaiah's teary eyes, and saw how broken his heart was, I was sad. I became broken-hearted.

And this reminds me of some sacred words:

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." -Romans 12:15

 

Sometimes the best thing to do isn't to say the right words. It's just to be there. Be happy when someone is happy. And weep when that someone weeps. Comforting words can be a wonderful thing, but sometimes there just aren't any. Sometimes the best thing to do lay yourself down and cry too.