Over the last few days I’ve had a number of encounters with lizards. This is unusual for me because, one, I stay inside a lot, and two, I generally only notice the cute and furry kinds of animals, like kitties and bunnies. But all of a sudden lizards are turning up everywhere, both literally and figuratively.

Last week I was talking to one of my coaches about how much I love summer, saying that I felt like a lizard just lying on a rock and soaking up the sun. The very next day I was walking down my driveway, and suddenly I came upon a lizard just lying on the concrete and soaking up the sun. It was very synchronistic and deeply meaningful, right up until the time my husband came home from work and declared that it was not actually sunning itself, but in fact was dead.

So I kind of forgot about lizards until they came up again today, twice. Then I thought that maybe someone, somewhere was trying to send me a message, so I did a little research on animals to see what lizards represent.

However the entertaining part of this story is not in the actual message itself, but rather in the method of its’ delivery. Apparently whoever was sending me this message decided that I wasn’t listening very well, so they decided to “kick it up a notch”-or two-on the drama scale.

First we discovered that the driveway lizard was actually alive, when he leaped into the air and ran away as my husband was preparing to bury him. Then this afternoon, as I was talking to another coach on the phone and sharing my whole me-as-a-lizard metaphor, I saw my cat, Tigger, triumphantly trotting inside with a lizard dangling from his mouth.

Rather than dwell on just how creeped out I was, I will hasten to assure you that the lizard was unharmed and was safely returned to the wilds of suburban Atlanta, although it did involve a very frantic lizard rescue operation, and I may never feel comfortable walking barefoot in my kitchen again.

I’m definitely paying attention now.