Five Days at the Petting Zoo

A windfall of joy

Well into her forties Pamela was convinced that a giant windfall was coming her way to uplift her out of her meager existence. There would be no more struggle, no more worrying about bills. Her life would radically change and she would be filled with unending joy.

She had tried all sorts of manifestation tricks. She had worked with positive affirmations and maintaining the correct attitudes to attract that windfall. She read books, watched videos, attended seminars. And she bought lottery tickets on a regular basis.

And she only seemed to get poorer.

Pamela had recently changed jobs. The pay was only slightly better than her previous job but the opportunities for advancement were much greater — or so she thought. Sadly, the new job was not much different than all her previous jobs and any advancement eluded her. Would she spend the rest of her life just going to work each day?

She had given up on dating when she realized that looking for a man with a windfall attached was a futile waste of energy. She knew that looking outside of herself for any sort of relief would not work. She had to look within.

But whenever Pamela looked within all she saw was a life of failure, mediocrity and hopelessness. She did not like what she saw when she looked within. That is what she wanted to change but she seemed stuck with the same person she had been all her life. She seemed to have no spark, no passion.

When she was younger she was convinced that the only way she would have an abundant, exciting life was to not have children. Her own mother had seven children and never had a life of her own. The burden of so many children had worn her down and prevented her from fulfilling her dreams of being a movie star.

At least her mother had dreams even if they were never realized. Pamela no longer had any dreams except for the one dream of being wealthy. Thinking back to her childhood she realized that she had no real dreams back then — other than to be wealthy. Now she wondered what she would do if that windfall actually came.

One morning, just as Pamela was about to leave for work, she received a phone call from her job. There had been an electrical fire in the building and the building was off-limits to people until the source of the fire was found and corrected and the place was cleaned up. She was told not to come in to work for at least a few days.

Pamela immediately began panicking. She could not afford to lose any pay. She did not want to dip into her meager savings. This was the last thing she needed.

With car keys in hand, she had a sudden thought. She did not have to go to work today. Perhaps she was being given a gift — a little surprise vacation. She left her apartment, got in her car and began driving.

She had no destination in mind. She just started driving. Lowering all the car windows to let the wind flush through, she drove and drove. Letting all her thoughts and worries flush away from her with the wind, she simply enjoyed the freedom of moving with no place to go.

Eventually she was about to pass the zoo when she decided to stop and go in. She had not been to a zoo in many years.

As she walked around looking at all the animals in their enclosures — their prisons — she started getting depressed. She felt like she was looking at herself. She felt like those animals living their lives in their small enclosures with no freedom, no joy, no excitement; just being gawked at by passing humans. The lives of those animals must be so boring and unfulfilling just as her life was.

Pamela decided to leave before she got even more depressed but near the exit she came to the petting zoo. It was a fairly sizeable enclosure but the animals were not being gawked at by humans outside the enclosure. Instead, the humans — children — were in the enclosure with the animals. There were goats and lambs and ducks and miniature horses and piglets and rabbits and tiny deer. The small animals and the small children were playing with other in wild abandon. Their collective sound was one of pure joy.

Sitting on a bench Pamela watched the children and animals playing for a few hours. She realized that they had something in common. Neither the children nor the little animals had any dreams or goals and were not even remotely thinking about the future. They were profoundly in the present moment and their only concern was playing. And they were all having extreme fun. She was watching a windfall of joy.

Pamela finally went home filled with joy and happiness. Each of the next four days she went back to the petting zoo to luxuriate in that spectacle of carefree joy for most of the day. In later years she would look back at those five days at the petting zoo as the pivotal point in her life when everything began to change.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction.

Speaking of animals and children…