Squirrel Knows

Squirrel Knows

Wow, it’s 2016. Didn’t last year seem to fly by? Time to take stock of things. Not to make resolutions, necessarily, as they rarely last through the year, but to see what is of value in our lives, to appreciate the people we love, and to move in positive directions. Do we respect ourselves? Are there things we’d like to change?

It isn’t necessary to do everything at once; rather let’s be realistic and focus on one idea at a time. We have to focus on the everyday things. This squirrel knows that. It is giving itself a good cleaning. It does its other usual chores as well like going in search of food, digging up nuts and seeds that were buried for the winter, looking for a mate.

Squirrels are inventive creatures, particularly when it comes to food. They can figure out ways to get onto bird feeders. They can sniff out acorns that were planted in the fall. One squirrel, which was being fed with peanuts by a friendly homeowner, took to knocking on the back door when it didn’t see its daily bounty.

I hope that this year is a good one for us all.

Squirrels’ behavior:

http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/graysquirrel.htm

A story I wrote for Chicken Soup for the Soul My Resolution: if you haven’t read it yet, here it is:

http://www.chickensoup.com/newsletter/186524/crazy-no-more&utm_source=CSS_Email&utm_medium=Bulletin&utm_term=$DATEADDED/NA$&utm_content=$MISC1/NA$&utm_campaign=daily

Ghost Cat

Ghost Cat

I was looking out my back door, debating if I wanted to go out. There were lots of things to do at the end of the year, backyard-wise. I could cut back the dead hibiscus stalks. The dried hydrangea flowers rebuked me for not having taken advantage of their beauty when they were full and vibrant and I should pull them off. The withered tomato vines were still in the garden.  Yet, I stood there doing nothing. The day was cold and gloomy. Why bother going out when it was so much better inside?

That’s when I saw it – the ghost cat. I had never seen such a fully white cat before. It was hustling through as if it was on a mission. I opened the door and called out, “Hey, cat!” It looked over at me for a nanosecond before continuing on its way. We grabbed a photo of it just before it disappeared into the neighbor’s yard.

Was it an albino cat or just a white one? I wasn’t close enough to see. An albino lacks pigment so its eyes seem pink, reflecting the blood vessels inside, and its skin is pink, too. Where did this cat come from? I hadn’t seen it before. But it shook off my lethargy and reminded me of the year about to pass.

This time of year brings up the ghosts of thoughts/actions/decisions past. Sometimes they are energizing, sometimes they are tinged with regret. Yet the seasons always shift, the days move on, and we are presented with new options. It is tempting to make resolutions for the coming year, decisions that frequently disappear almost as soon as they are made, that become the ghosts of the future. They are too definitive, I think.

This year I am making inclinations more than resolutions. I am inclined toward sending out more of my writing. I am leaning in the direction of renewing contact with people I like but have let slip away. I am tending toward being gentler in my approach to life, to laugh a lot more. Nothing momentous, just simple possibilities. 

So on the cusp of 2014, I thank the ghost cat for waking me up. And I wish all of you the very best of the New Year.

Folk singer Woody Guthrie made his list of resolutions in 1933, when he was 31. He called them Rulin’s and they were quite practical. Did he follow them? Here they are:

http://www.businessinsider.com/woody-guthries-new-years-resolutions-2013-12

Something about Albino cats:

http://pets.thenest.com/rare-albino-kittens-11242.html