The Bat Lady Next Door

I live next door to a bat. Really. A bat who goes to work everyday, pays taxes, drives a car, flies on airplanes and leads a relatively normal human life.

She works as a nurse by day, but at night she is a certifiable bat. I doubt her coworkers even know she is a bat, but I do - and now you do too.

Maybe she’s a vampire bat? Hence the reason she works in a hospital for those nightly “feedings,” except vampire bats live in the warm tropical countries of central and South America, not Los Angeles.

A vampire bat needs to drink about half of its body weight every night which is about a tablespoon of blood. Hmmm, I wonder if the hospital where she works ever has blood shortages?

She lives in darkness - literally! Though she moved in several months ago, she still has boxes stacked on the floor that haven’t been unpacked yet.

She doesn’t have any furniture, not even curtains on her windows, so anyone can see inside her house.

When I return from my nightly walk, I see the light of her refrigerator illuminating her face, but she won’t turn on any lights.

She reads in the dark, eats in the dark, and talks on the phone in the dark, all at the kitchen table.

I told you, she’s a bat. She flies with her hands, (bats are the only true flying mammals in the world) and sees with her ears (echolocation helps them navigate in total darkness by sending a high frequency that bounces off objects. They hear these echoes and locate, identify, and capture moving prey while flying through the dark.)

There is a large clothing rack in the window upstairs which I think she probably sleeps on while hanging upside down.

My bat neighbor is part of a world population of more than ten billion. They have been around for at least 50 million years. Despite this incredible length of time they still look much like their fossil ancestors.

Bats are one of the most misunderstood animals. They are gentle, intelligent animals that are quite timid when it comes to interacting with humans. (Come to think of it, I have never seen her “interacting” with humans, certainly not in her home.)

A bat is a trogloxene; from the Greek words "troglos" (cave) and "xenos" (guest.) They are temporary cave residents which freely move in and out of the cave. Bats are of the order Chiroptera, Latin for "hand-wing."

I do find it strange that she doesn’t have any lights on, not even candle light. All she has to do is get curtains so she can turn the lights on, or even put paper on the windows so she won’t be seen, but she would rather stay in the dark - and that’s the sad thing.

Though Helen Keller was deaf and blind, her life was totally illuminated. She even said, “If I, deaf, blind, find life rich and interesting, how much more can you gain by the use of your five senses!”

Our lives are only dark because we can’t see the light. Often times, it’s only a switch on the wall, or a switch in our consciousness to help brighten our living space - the space our Soul calls home.

For some reason my neighbor doesn’t want to take simple steps to illuminate herself and thus illuminate her life.

She would rather wear a veil of darkness. Some people don’t necessarily like living in darkness, but they don’t know how to hit the switch.

I can’t force her eyes to see. I can't force them toward the light. She must be ready to accept light in order to see.

I can only offer her love and compassion and sometimes that’s all it takes to remove the veil of darkness.

Once that veil is detached, there is such a light and lightness in our world. Darkness is a heavy burden. A bough that weighs us down and when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall along with our will and willingness to get up.

We have to partake in the art of seeing. We can’t let darkness obstruct our vision. If we can’t see where we’re going, we wind up going in circles, staying in one place or bouncing off the walls (like a bat.)

Like Helen Keller would say, “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

Don’t let darkness prevail. Move towards the light. Bask in the brightest heaven of invention. Let the light of your love illuminate the path in your heart.

Happy bright weekend everybody.