My heart beats for them

“Don’t worry Mom, we climb down this way every time. Just watch for snakes.” said to me by my oldest as I peered down into the vine and brush filled slant toward the creek.

The entry into the ranch

After sliding down the leaf strewn hill, this old chick and her 2 boys climbed along the ground under a barbed wire fence. As I slid under it, the boys kept yelling, “Lower Mom! Lower!” I yelled back, “I can’t get any lower!!! I am just thicker than you!!” Sheesh!

The day is bright and clear. It is 93 degrees, but a nice breeze is blowing. The creek is glorious.

R. Creek

Sunday at the creek

The boys are so excited. We have come to the creek in the early evening to hunt for green grass snakes. They saw a dead one in the road, so they are certain we will find one. They also want me to see Bob. Bob is a snake that lives in the waterfall of the creek. He lives in a crevice and is there every time the boys come to explore. We find Bob without a problem. He even came out of his cave to pose for a few shots:

Bob in his house

Bob

A closeup of Bob

Bob is non-venomous and completely harmless. I am amazed at how tame he is. I told the boys to never try and catch him or bother him. Don’t violate his trust. I told them how lucky they were to be able to see Bob in his natural environment.

The creek was teaming with fish. No wonder the boys love to come here to fish. As many as there are, they rarely catch anything. Catching them isn’t the point though…..just being there with friends is.

Lots of fish!

We wandered down the length of the creek, seeing perch, bass and large bull frogs. Cody led the way, with me in the middle and Cory bringing up the rear. The path wound along the creek edge, and then slightly up a hill around some trees, sloping back down to the creek. We were chatting and laughing, but in a heart beat, Cory’s tone changed to alarm and terror and I hear him scream “Watch out!!!!!” I spun around and looked to where he was pointing at Cody’s feet, and about a foot from mine.

Time has a way of blurring and accelerating at such moments. Could it be that when our hearts begin to race, they can actually warp time too? All I know is that my adrenaline kicked in as I gazed down at what we later identified as a 3 foot long water moccasin that my 8yo was STANDING ON!!! Cody screamed and jumped back. In the flurry that insued, when my racing heart accelerated time by some kind of quantum physics, I recall grabbing his arm and screaming “Oh my GOD! Stop!!!” He was dancing around and the snake was striking and hitting his shoe. Cody finally flew threw the air, either from me lifting him with one arm and throwing him, or an angel lept from heaven, plucked him from the chaos and set him down 5 feet from the snake.

The terrified, confused snake raced down the embankment and flew into the water.

I grabbed Cody by the shoulders and looked at him. He was shaking uncontrollably, saying “It didn’t bite me. I’m okay.” I stripped his pants off and rolled down his socks. Snake bites are strange things. The initial adrenaline rush can sometimes mask a snake bite. The victim is so hyped up that they are not aware of the pain yet.

In this case, by the grace of God, there were no bites on my son….the little one I call Teeter Totter because as a baby he loved a song by that name. While we were dancing with the devil, my mind whirled back and flashed to images of days with him in diapers, lying on a quilt in the sun listening to that song.

Teeter at R. Creek

When we recovered and our legs became solid under us again, we wandered down to the creek edge to see the snake and identify it. It was in the creek next to a rock. I poked it with a very long stick and it swam out and down the creek. It was a Western Cottonmouth. A viper whose venom would kill a small child. It was approximately 2 1/2 -3 inches in DIAMETER and about 3 feet in length.

God…..he does not rest on Sunday. He never rests. He has plans for these boys. They must grow up and tell this story over and over again to their children and grandchildren……the snake will get bigger and bigger with each generation.

The boys

My heart? I have learned this weekend that not only is it capable of effecting time, but its capacity to hold love for my children is 1000x what I thought it was.