{"id":291,"date":"2017-04-06T22:02:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T02:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/?page_id=291"},"modified":"2017-04-12T17:58:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T21:58:46","slug":"beware-the-lure-of-the-snake","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/stories\/beware-the-lure-of-the-snake\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware the Lure of the Snake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-292 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Snake-300x218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"429\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Snake-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Snake-scaled-416x302.jpg 416w, https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Snake-768x558.jpg 768w, https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Snake-1024x745.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I stand at the patio door, looking out. \u00a0My stomach churns. \u00a0\u00a0An old feeling. \u00a0\u00a0Fear. \u00a0Dread. \u00a0Being left behind. \u00a0\u00a0Being taken advantage of. \u00a0Being harmed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The snake on the patio, smiling, sunning herself, looking so lazy and peaceful waiting&#8211;waiting to strike&#8211;with effort keeping her forked tongue in her mouth. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behind me the piles of books to sort through, to find the answers before entering the courtyard to face her. \u00a0\u00a0Can I stand on my feet? \u00a0\u00a0Yes. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But will I waiver? \u00a0\u00a0Will I accept what she so slyly puts forth. \u00a0Will my research fail me and slip from my mind? \u00a0Will all my analytics fall silent as I listen to her sorcery and quick speech and dismissal of issues? She will be prepared. \u00a0\u00a0She will listen to what I have to say and then she will discount them with a word or two. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCome sit by me,\u201d she\u2019ll say. \u00a0\u201cBask in the warm sun beside me.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0She\u2019ll lift her head to the sun and smile careful to hold her tongue in her mouth and keep her jaws closed. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the garden beds behind her, her family slithers and hisses advice to her. \u00a0\u00a0They squirm around at the ready, sisters, brothers, allies. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What armor shall I take with me to battle this foe? \u00a0What weakness shall I closet and leave behind? \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leave anger behind. \u00a0\u00a0Anger will not serve you there. Take fear as an ally to sharpen your perception, to warn you and guard you against treachery. \u00a0\u00a0Logic and reason will be with you but do not try to share and rationalize with the snake. For her mind is set, her path is chosen. \u00a0The chorus behind her will hiss their rebuttals to anger you, to throw you off course. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Send forth a courier. \u00a0Prepare for everything. \u00a0\u00a0Stay on the path. \u00a0\u00a0Go slowly. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your mind will serve you well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a9 April 6, 2017 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glenda Kotchish <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I stand at the patio door, looking out. \u00a0My stomach churns. \u00a0\u00a0An old feeling. \u00a0\u00a0Fear. \u00a0Dread. \u00a0Being left behind. \u00a0\u00a0Being taken advantage of. \u00a0Being harmed. The snake on the patio, smiling, sunning herself, looking so lazy and peaceful waiting&#8211;waiting to strike&#8211;with effort keeping her forked tongue in her mouth. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Behind me the piles of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":33,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-291","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/291\/revisions\/304"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}