Rabbit: What are you doing, Hare?

Hare: Nothing much, it seems.

Rabbit: Ah, the dolce far niente again. It must be your modus vivendi.

Hare: There’s nothing like a mixture of languages to get me going. So what are you doing?

Rabbit: Well, it’s harvest season. I’m busy preparing for winter. Every day there seems more to do. I wish my life were less hectic.

Hare: What do you mean?

Rabbit: Such stress! Others make such demands on my time, and I cannot accomplish everything — sometimes anything — I set out to do. I need more time and more energy.

Hare: I know you’re clever. What tricks have you found to make better use of your time?

Rabbit: A great many! I make lists, I set goals, I sleep less. Still, by early evening, I feel exhausted and just eat myself to sleep. It angers me to see lazier animals, who lie around as if sleeping with their eyes open, so to speak.

Hare: That sounds unhealthy.

Rabbit: What can I do? More to the point, what do you do? You always seem very calm. Do you read poetry, or pray to an unknown god?

Hare: These are good things. My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky ….

Rabbit: What are you talking about?

Hare: Not my words; someone else’s. He was excited to see such a sight that nature gave him, and was thankful for it.

Rabbit: I sense a lesson here somewhere.

Hare: No lesson: it’s just an observation. Haven’t you noticed how feeling grateful makes you feel more alive? Gratitude seems related to grace: it answers to grace, giving thanks for an outside gift —

Rabbit: Enough — I need to run —

Hare: — and thought itself imagines the rainbow as a heavenly sign. Thinking realizes its fullest scope when it takes form as a gift.

Rabbit, where are you?