Wordless Conversation With a Squirrel

miracles of nature

The present

It is July. Hot, hot, hot this year, the air and my apartment filled with extra humidity, too. I am caught in this in-between space of wanting to treasure summer, a favorite time of year for the longest days of light and feeling ready for fall before August has even begun.

I am keenly aware of this season, this now moment, which is part of who I am at my core. Now. This moment.

During all seasons, I take in the beauty of a very old, abundantly full maple tree. It feels like a companion as I watch the changing color of leaves, loss of leaves, new leaves and the fullness of the leafing out cycle when the gorgeous lime green color appears in the spring.

(Photo courtesy of Scenic Hudson, an organization in which my aunt was an activist for many years)

The tree’s gift for squirrels

I notice the various species that use the tree for shelter, resting, cooling off perhaps in this current heat.

There is a squirrel, this squirrel I am watching for its industriousness and how smart it is – yes, smart, very, very smart. It has something to teach me.

Early each morning, just after sun rises and the branches of the tree are visible, I am totally taken with the squirrel. I make sure I am in my sitting space on time to be in the squirrel’s presence.

I watch it through a clearing in the tree as it races up a large branch, hops into the dense leafy area, clips off a very small branch with its teeth, hops back onto the large branch, and races back down. Over and over and over. Until, and this is one of the reasons I consider the squirrel to be so smart, it begins to get too hot for that activity. I won’t see it again until the next morning. Perhaps it spends the rest of the day sprawled on a branch, as squirrels love to do.

After several days of being mesmerized by the activity, I guessed that while only July, the squirrel is readying for winter by building its nest now. It is going to be prepared well ahead of time. It knows the resources are best at this time, when the full, flexible branches of leaves need to be taken advantage of before it is too late.

Sure enough. I go online and Google, “Do squirrels build their nests in July?” Of course, the answer comes back yes, that June and July are their nest building times.

I think of it as nest weaving, knowing that the branches need to be flexible enough to bend and hold together with strength to sustain wind and snow.  

Knowing

The squirrels know; however they know, that if they wait until fall when leaves begin to dry and fall off the branches they will not have the whole combination of branch and leaf to weave together into their nests. Now is the time.

This is such an example of my current fascination, almost obsession but maybe not quite yet, with what I think of as the minds of those that are not human – animals, insects, birds, fish and more.

I want to know what is inside their bodies that is so miraculous, that guides them to everything they need to know when they need to know it, often with a life span that is by nature quite short even as some are fortunate to live many years.

Our wordless conversation

This squirrel is wordlessly speaking to me, as if saying, “What is it you need to be preparing for that you have not yet realized, or begun or are putting off? What is the season of your life that is calling you to ready yourself in some human way we do not know about, but you know? And when you know, will you have the persistence, the stamina, the agility (ha! We do know we beat you in agility many times over!), and also the joy of building what needs to be built? Readying what needs to be ready?”

The conversation is continuing. These questions I feel I have been asked by the squirrel come back and back and back, not letting me off the hook.  I want to find out what I might have missed over time and might be missing now in devotion to preparation of some kind. Physical? Emotional? Spiritual? Mental?

There’s discipline happening in the tree that is for me to notice. There is commitment. There is nimbleness and natural ability.

The squirrel is not stopping to look around to see who’s watching or checking out what others are doing. I don’t think it wonders if the birds are gossiping about it or critiquing it. Or if another squirrel is building a bigger or better nest.

It is simply doing what it knows it is called to do.

Perhaps this is what the squirrel is showing me and asking me to remember, a lively, wise being in its own knowing that is not going to let me off the hook.