Why did Patrick not look for May after she abandoned him and Paige?

Paige asks why he never went looking for her mother. Patrick tells her that when he was a child, his father would cut the fields for haying; moving in tighter and tighter circles until there was one large patch left in the center. Patrick and his sister would run into that center and scare out the rabbits that had gathered there. Once, Patrick caught one and wanted to keep it but his father told him it would die if kept in a cage. Patrick kept it anyway, and the rabbit died the next day. Patrick's father told him some things are meant to stay free. This was why Patrick never tried to find May.