Outside of the obvious choices of my wonderful daughter, my loving fiancé, and the sparkly ring he gave me (if I ever get a picture that does it justice, I will post it), my favorite thing in the whole wide world is my rabbit.

Everyone should have a rabbit. It's like having a furry Buddha in your home. Noel lives in my living room. When anyone is home, she has the run of several bunny-proofed areas of the house. However, she primarily likes to stay in her room, the gated area in the photo, which takes up a third of my tiny dining room.

Noel is very entertaining. Couch potato that I am, I can sit and watch her chew, clean, putter around the living room. It’s fascinating the way animals take care of themselves. Cleaning her ears is a particularly charming activity for observers. It’s calming to watch her breath go in and out, her eyes close into sleep, her head drop as she drifts off, until her head jerks back up, as if she were caught in some bad deed.

Noel is quiet. At the end of a day with 22 Kindergartners, I need that. She makes very few noises. She thumps her back foot when she is angry or scared. And she snores. When the house is quiet, and she is curled up in a loaf, or stretched out, you can hear soft little squeaky noises emanating from her. It is charming and cozy. It makes me laugh every time. 

She sometimes makes noise when she plays. Usually play consists of a few laps around the living room and down the hall, incorporating a jump or two (known as binkies in the rabbit world, don’t ask me why). But recently, I bought her a tunnel made of crinkly nylon. She crawls into it and digs. Yes, she digs. And she runs up and down. And the tunnel crinkles. A lot. I have to turn the TV up. It’s the most noise that rabbit has ever made. I love it. I was very much afraid she would ignore that tunnel (rabbits are finicky creatures), but it was $15.00 well spent.

She likes to spend time outside:

She gets into the fireplace:

She plays under her blanket:

She makes friends:

She sleeps:

In fact, Noel spends a lot of time sleeping, and just sitting. In funny little tucked in positions. That’s when she is most Buddha-like, and when I am reminded to be Buddha-like myself. It tends to be a very important reminder for the anxious child in my soul.