three most scary reasons why i must be super extra careful in hiking the wilderness

while it is true that there are so many reasons why i should sing alleluiah= (aside from the fact that we already chant it in every Office. 'O-ffi-ce' means major and minor prayers of the day that we conduct in Church)= because Summer is just around the corner, i must also warn myself not to be so overwhelmed by it so that i can caution myself everytime i go for monastic walk or simply stroll in the woods from three horrible and scary wildlife creatures that abound in the wilderness of the monastery property.

skunks are lovely looking creatures- but beware! they spray their 'fluid' that has the worst and terrible smell that will stick on you for hours and hours even if you have bathed yourself already a dozen times!...whenever we smell that familiar skunk smell in our vicinity, rest assured that a skunk has gotten inside the cloister garden...so, the first thing that we usually do is to summon a monk who has that skill in driving away these cute-looking but toxic-smelling little creatures by his comforting-skunk magnetizing charms....we call this monk as the skunk comforter-driver.


bears in the wilderness of the canyons are wild creatures that are scared of getting noticed by any human creature. they come out from where they have been hiding all winter to haunt for food. we usually spot bears in the slopes of our chama canyon overlooking the monastery buildings near the kitchen and garbage bins. we also can see them from a distance, taking a dip in the chama river. unless they are provoked by a compromising encounter with a human being at a very near distance, they don't mean any harm and danger.
we have one giant bear cage in the monastery given to us by the Sta Fe National Forestry who takes care of the wilderness in the near vicinity of the monastery. and whenever we spot one or two at the river or in the canyon, we don't run after them, but we run after a monk here and make him manage to vanish the bear presence either to scare them away or cage them in our giant cage to be surrendered to the National Forestry in Sta Fe Office. we call this monk as the bearscare-cager!...


then, i must be aware of the coming out (from where these creatures have hibernated during the whole of winter season) of snakes all over the place. during summer, rattle and bull snakes abound in the pathwalks and even in paved grounds and dirtroad of the monastery. bull snakes are big farm-garden snakes that do not bite and has no venom, but rattle snakes are the deadliest. their venom can kill any human creature in matters of 5 minutes when beaten.

most of us get goosebumps just by a mere sight of even the smallest thumb-sized rattle or bull snake slithering in our cloister garden. but there is one monk here who loves cuddling bull snakes and enjoys killing rattle snakes and cut their rattles from their tails and add them to his collection.
we call this monk who is fond of catching bullsnakes and killing rattle snakes as the snakecharmer-slayer....