He was to be her rock and she was to be his everything. But his addictions writhed through their lives and wreaked their unwithering havoc through every aspect of their existences.
I pulled into my driveway one summer night and began up the walkway. Something in the lily of the valley next to the walkway was stirring though. I backed up and went out and around. Once inside, I peaked out the door. With the plants still stirring, out came a large black snake. Just as I gasped, another appeared. They were intertwined and making their way from the lilies to the walkway. With fear and panic overtaking my being, I quickly shut the door.
“I wish I’d have been there, I’m not afraid of them,” he said when I told him about it the next day. But he wasn’t there and I’d been afraid.
That summer he ended up in rehab. He was determined to rid his own life of its proverbial snakes- addictions to drugs and alcohol.
The two were excited for a new start. A life together free of those demons. Time after time while he was away, the snakes would resurface. Seemingly sneakily slithering under her chaise lounge and finding her lying on the concrete by the backyard pool. Twice, slithering right over her foot as she unsuspectingly walked poolside.
One evening I was out for a walk with my best friend, Jackson– a 3 1/2 year old Golden Retriever and Siberian Husky mix. As we walked down the street on that hot summer night, we spotted something on the pavement up ahead. As we approached, I saw that it was a black snake. I walked as far around it as I could. But once we passed it, I felt drawn back to it. I turned around and took a few steps towards it. As we watched the snake still making its way across the street, I could feel the significance of its presence. I gasped as a slight chill went up my spine. It meant something, but I didn’t know what.
Was it a day later or weeks later, I don’t know- but I had the realization that a new beginning was in fact amongst us, and that realization breathed life back into my weary being.
The black snakes had scared her- every single time. The black snakes to him though were nothing to fear- for he knew without knowing, deep within his soul that as snakes shed their skin through sloughing, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing.
Furthermore, the presence of a black snake outside one’s front door is a sign of transition or change in one’s life.
For the snakes were as much his friends as the dog was hers- he didn’t fear his transformation, this new beginning. He welcomed it.
Listening to Thought You Should Know by Morgan Wallen
