One morning, after a long night in drizzling rain, Ean makes his way to a shallow cave in nearby cliffs. As he clambers inside and turns around he is stunned to see a large lioness asleep there, purring. Snoring beside her is a handsome gazelle. Ean slumps, motionless, silent for ages. Rain pelts outside, storming beyond the quiet, dry, cave. The great cat's purring deepens. Rain continues all day, until early evening.
As the red sun settles beyond lustrous, purple-blue seas, Lioness rumbles and yawns, shaking Ean and Gazelle awake. She stretches and roars softly. Gazelle touches his muzzle to Ean's hand, and sniffs his ear. "She won't eat you."
Lioness smiles, saunters forward and rests a massive paw on Ean's thigh, brushing her whiskers against his face. Then she walks to the cave entrance, to gaze over the plains.
"Everything isn’t as it seems, unless you understand everything.
I know it seems unusual for you to see Gazelle and me together like this... we are always together. Because lions and gazelle share life we have a profound bond."
Gazelle interrupts with a snort. "Ean, the relationship between prey and pre
dator is ancient. As Gazelle, one of my roles in life is to become prey. I am born to it. Raised for it. Some gazelle are not eaten until very old, some when young, and others while in their prime. Eventually, all of us are eaten somehow. That final chase is filled with sudden fear. We run fast as this is the moment we live and prepare for. Sometimes we elude the kill. But one day you sense the moment is near. Fear is present, as it must be for the chase to be real. When the lion's paw knocks you down, all you can do is go with it. And you are embraced. White teeth and warm mouth wrap around your neck and press down, and you realize one of your main purposes - being food for another. Pressing fear transforms to love, surrender to life itself.”Lioness returns to the boy, rumbling softly, "Many humans hold the wrong idea about predator and prey. When a lion sees an antelope or gazelle, sneaks close, and gives chase, there is no anger, no rage, no bad feelings there.
“Instead... the lion fixes attention one-pointedly, becoming completely focused on the prey. In doing so the lion achieves a deep love for the gazelle, almost becoming one with the prey. In this way the lion surrenders every fibre and sinew to the kill. The lion lets everything go and gives over completely. This is the ancient relationship of predator and prey where two become one. The form of sacrifice differs for each, but is equal. And one day the predator is also eaten."
Both Lioness and Gazelle move to Ean and press their bodies against his. He embraces them. They turn and disappear into the night, to hunt and be hunted, as lions and gazelle have always done since they began.
(excerpt from 'Real Heart, World of No Fear" Stuart Camps 2008, © )
