Fall Into Me

This past Monday I was down in the Huntington Beach area getting the last of my things packed up into a storage unit at Public Storage while I am up tending to my brother, Chris. He is in a rehab facility in Burbank as he struggles to regain the use of his legs after being in a month-long coma that almost took his life - twice - over the Christmas holiday.

And while I was down in Huntington Beach gathering the last of my things - my garden art and wind chimes from the once-beautiful garden I had created in the home I have had to leave - I carefully stepped over the low brick wall into the garden and then went sprawling flat onto my face!  I more than cleared the wall, but my foot then caught on a stake sticking up out of the ground that I hadn't seen in the quickly falling darkness.

I scraped the small, concrete gazebo on my way down with the fleshy under part of my forearm and hit my forehead on a hanging basket before landing face down among the plants.  Thank goodness it was just after dusk, and none of the neighbors saw me.

But my fall made me think of this blog post from a couple of years ago and I was just impressed that there was someone out there who needed to hear this message this week.  So here it is...



Fall Into Me...

When I was a kid growing up in the islands, we had an assortment of odd critters that found their way into our house on the hill.  

It was easy for them to get in, because the house was very open with at least 50% of it made up  of louvered doors and louvered windows.  Many of which were left open to the tropical breeze.
.

Of course there were the anoles (the green lizards) and geckos that skittered along the walls and the windows looking for mosquitoes or other unsuspecting pests.  

Our filly, Lorien, found her way up the balcony stairs and into the house once.  More than one stray cat, and a few stray dogs arrived (and stayed) through our open tropical doorways.

One midnight I awoke in the darkness of night to a scraping, rattling sounds.  Terrified, I lay in bed and held my breath.  

Certainly the sounds indicated that a bad guy was trying to get in the wooden louvered window!

But after several minutes of on again, off again rattling, I realized that he was a terrible burglar if it took him so long to open a window that even an eight-year-old could just push open. He couldn’t be that big of a
threat!

So I finally got out of bed, crossed the room and flipped on the light.  

And there was my burglar: a large blue-gray land crab!

He wasn’t actually at the window, but three feet up the louvered closet door beside the window.  How he found his way into the room and up so high, I couldn’t guess.

But the worst – or the grossest (if that’s a word) – was the bufo marinus; the marine toad, or cane toad.  He was a hideous creature; the largest of all South American toads. 

Clammy and cold, he had brown, warty skin, could weigh as much as four pounds, and stretched as long as fifteen inches fully extended.

You couldn’t have paid me to touch one.  They were just too nasty.  But Patty and George (my younger sister and brother), of course, were fearless and had no problem with picking them up.  

They loved to chase me with them, threatening me by shoving them in my face.

And then, of course, there was my step-brother, Cameron.  He found special joy in sneaking up on Rosa, the maid,  who was absolutely terrified of them, and dropping them on her size ten feet.  

She always rewarded him with a shriek that could be heard all the way in Madagascar and a dance that would impress even Len Goodman!

Native to the Amazon basin, they were brought to the islands to control the rat and mouse populations that thrived in the cane fields there.

They excrete a poisonous venom that can kill any cat or dog who might seek to attack them.

But the little toad I want to talk about today is not the bufo marinus, but Oreo-phrynella niger, or the Venezuelan Pebble Toad, as it is commonly known.  It is about as far as you can get from the Cane Toad. 

The Pebble Toad, also a native of South America, is a tiny little guy about the size of thimble (or a thumbnail) who weighs next to nothing. 


It spends most of its time climbing up the rocky slopes of the mountain side above the tree line. 

Its black and gray skin helps him hide on the sheer, rocky slopes where it lives. 

And fortunately, the slopes are so craggy and steep that very little wildlife is there to threaten it.

Its only predator on the mountain side is the tarantula.  And the pebble toad is no match for this quick-moving arachnid.

Compared to the one inch length of the pebble toad, the tarantula is 4 ½  to 5 ½ inches when full grown.  And it’s very quick.

When confronted by a predator, some animals fight, others run while a few hide, hoping not to be noticed.

Unlike the cane toad, the pebble toad doesn’t have cat-killing venom.  And it can only leap about an inch, so it isn’t much of a runner. It really has no means of protection at all.

So its only defense when it sees sudden danger in the form of this hairy, scary, deadly enemy is to leap.

Not forward in escape, but backward.

In blind faith, the toad throws itself backward and tumbles in a free fall from the face of this cliff.  

It tumbles, head over heels, bouncing and flying – complete- ly out of control – until it comes to rest in a crag or lands on a ledge.

It does this without so much as a second thought.  Simply tucks in its four legs and ducks its head in tight, turning itself into a little ball or pebble.  



And in utter faith, it lets go, bouncing, tumbling and crashing down the rocky mountain side, trusting it will find a safe resting place.

And because it weighs next to nothing, the force of impact against the rock as it rebounds down the hill is practically nil. 

Slamming against the rocky surface of the mountain side as it tumbles in free fall causes it no damage at all

...An incredible journey of sheer faith, knowing it will land safely and find sanctuary...

It brings into mind the beautiful words of this country song that I love.  



Fall Into Me
by Emerson Drive:

"I need you to know you can fall into me
That my arms are wide open and will always be
Right here waiting, Staying strong
Come and fall into me."

Emmerson Drive

Shouldn't we all live our lives in such a way that we have the faith of that little Venezuelan Pebble Toad?  To trust God that much?  That we can let go when problems arise, and just bounce off the mountain of trouble and tumble unharmed into the crag of His open arms?  

At least that is my goal...


Liz Carson Rosas
2 April 2010

Cast your cares on the LORD
       and he will sustain you;
       he will never let the righteous fall.
       ….But as for me, I trust in you.

                                                Psalms 55:22,23

The LORD upholds all those who fall
       and lifts up all who are bowed down.

                                                Psalms 145:14

In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
       let me never be put to shame;
       deliver me in your righteousness.

  Turn your ear to me,
       come quickly to my rescue;
       be my rock of refuge,
       a strong fortress to save me

                                                Psalms 31:1,2

 "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

       my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
       my shield and the horn of my salvation.
       He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—
       from violent men you save me.

                                                2 Samuel 22: 2,3


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