Rabbit Poop, Grit, and Grace.

A Surprising Lesson in Growth

What a Rabbit’s digestive habit has to teach us about life — and faith.

Hello DearLovedOnes!

To get us started here on this new site, I wanted to share this amusing story of learning more about rabbit behaviors leading to profound insight and meaning.

To start, our little bun-ikins Nutmeg is both my and my husband’s first Rabbit.

Sometimes life teaches us its most meaningful lessons through the most unexpected places. For me, one of those lessons came through something as humble — and honestly as funny — as rabbit poop.

Beware, this might gross some people out...

Bunnies are designed to do something that is vital to not just their optimal health and well-being, but absolutely vital to their survival.

It is something we as humans find quite unsanitary and downright disgusting.

In fact, while making sure I knew the importance of this, the vet told me she’s had people who try to prevent it, and that it is highly detrimental!

For those who aren’t aware — as I wasn’t until I saw Nutmeg do it and instantly looked into it — bunnies have two different kinds of poop.

One is the ultimate end result - aka, the ‘finished’ product.

The other, is meant to be re-ingested!

They are known as cecotropes¹.

This is so they can continue to digest and absorb the nutrients from that fibrous hay and grass they need to consume. These 'poops' are nutrient-rich droppings that need to be re-ingested to be further broken down in order to absorb essential vitamins they otherwise wouldn't get.

Because of the way they were created, rabbits eat food that can be processed more easily, greens and herbs, as well as food that needs more processing. The former goes one way, and the latter — the stuff that needs further breaking down — goes another.

The more fibrous food is broken down into this alternate excretion format. The Cecotropes must be re-ingested and further processed for vital nutrients (like B-vitamins) to be properly absorbed.

This strange but necessary behavior reminded me how often life invites us to revisit what we thought we already thought, knew, believed, understood...

Bunny physiology becomes philosophical.

It just goes to show, DearLovedOnes, that inspiration, deeper understanding, etc., and the pursuit of becoming can strike at any moment and from any place.

That messages of meaning, deepening of faith, life lessons, experiences, etc., as well as the opportunity for growth and development, are never over.

That hope, trust, purpose, guidance, help, and answers can come from unanticipated moments and unexpected sources.

And that perhaps sometimes we need to re-ingest, re-visit, or re-invent something to better recognize, acknowledge, process, understand, absorb, and ultimately utilize something to and for our greater good.

Perhaps an experience, an idea/concept, a training, an experiment, a project, a conversation, or any number of things.

For instance. The more I reread the same book(s) — aka, the Bible — or watch the same movie(s), or have similar life lessons, the more I notice, become aware/enlightened, understand, and strive to apply.

The more I digest, the more I can absorb. The more I absorb, the more I grow.

Because of re-ingesting information, or what-have-you, I might have the opportunity and hopefully ability to better learn, acknowledge, absorb, process, etc., and apply what I am digesting again, and again, and again.

The more I do the same things, the more I learn. The more I practice, the easier and the better I become at those things.

It’s not always that we have done, learned, or tried something once, but if we are willing to again — however many times we might need to.

Scripture tells us something quietly powerful about the willpower of trying again.

“For though the righteous fall seven times, they will get up again, but the wicked stumble in evil.”  — Proverbs 24:16 (TLV)

Sometimes we need to try doing something new, and that is more than okay! It’s great to try, learn, and do new things.

It is also an incredible resilience to try the ‘same’ thing, again.

Perhaps in a new way. Perhaps with a different focus. Perhaps with a different perspective, understanding, and/or acceptance we didn’t have previously.

I bet the first time any of us tried any number of things, we may have had moments of instant success for sure, but more than likely we struggled.

• Did we try again?
• How many times?
• For what reasons?
• What is our WHY?

And any number of other questions.

Point is though … to keep trying.

As infants we practiced rolling over. We practiced lifting ourselves up to eventually crawl or walk. We practiced shrieking loudly, learning how to control our voice, and eventually create words and sentences in an effort to communicate.

Over time we learned how to jump and run. How to sing and dance. How to eat in whatever way is our society’s normal. How to clothe ourselves, and so much more.

If you can read this, or listen and understand, it is because of the effort you put into it — required, necessary, or otherwise. It was first a practice that was filled with strife. Over time it, likely and hopefully, became easier, better, faster, stronger…

We can apply the lesson of a bunny eating their cecotropes — that are to be digested again — as a lesson in life to digest again and again.

The choice of how often, for whom, for what purpose — any other reason or desired outcome — is each our own choice.

Shame has no place in trying again.

Rabbits don’t shame themselves for what didn’t work the first time. They don’t quit because nourishment didn’t come immediately. They return. They repeat. They trust the process their bodies were designed for.

And maybe we’re meant to do the same.

Growth is rarely linear. Healing often asks us to revisit lessons we thought we should already understand. Faith is not about never falling — it’s about rising again, sometimes over and over, with a little more humility, patience, and grace each time.

Grit is showing up again. Grace is allowing yourself to.

So if you’re feeling discouraged — if you’ve stumbled, failed, doubted, or started over more times than you can count — let this be your gentle reminder:

Falling does not disqualify you. Repetition does not mean regression. And even the messiest parts of life can become nourishment in time.

Just as bunnies cannot absorb all their nutrients without fully processing what comes back around, our hearts and minds often need to revisit truths more than once before they take root in daily life.

Creating this mindset, to keep trying. To keep learning and doing — new things, old things, old things in new ways. Again and again. It’s what Angela Duckworth² calls Grit.

She was fascinated by and studied talent compared to grit. Her research shows that sustained effort — not just raw talent — predicts long-term achievement.

It’s pretty incredible, remarkable, noteworthy, extraordinary what someone can accomplish with determination and growth mindset.

A growth mindset is the belief that abilities and understanding are not fixed but rather flexible. That we have the ability to expand what we are capable of with effort and time. It's the belief that with effort, one can become better at something outside outside ‘natural ability’.

It’s what Carol Dweck³ researched and wrote about in her book Mindset. Within the first few pages she reveals how our beliefs are what shape us, and that if we change our beliefs we have the potential to change ourselves.

Even if we are ‘perfect’ just the way we are — thank you Mark Darcy — does that mean we stop becoming more of who we are?

With perhaps unlimited potential, isn’t it fun to figure out what else we are each capable of learning, doing, becoming?

As the song says … “if at first you don’t succeed, pick yourself up and try again”.

I hope that we all try again. That we take the lesson of eating the food of life twice — or more if needed! —  so that we might absorb as much as we can with each meal.

In Galatians 6:9, the scriptures ask us "not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap — if we don’t give up.”  —  (TLV) — 

In what ways can we apply this instruction to our everyday lives?

“What lesson could you revisit today? What truth feels worth ‘digesting again’?”

Don’t lose heart DearLovedOnes.
Please. Keep believing. Keep trying.
Keep showing up and doing the work.

Thank you for reading, God Bless, and good luck on all your endeavors!

Leave me a comment to share your thoughts and/or your story with trying something repeatedly. If you enjoyed this article, please do me a favor and share it.