From where I sit, it is a Squirrel-A-Polooza. There are 5 (!) squirrels on several branches of the maple I have the joy to look at from my office window. One is just chilling, one is chasing his girl. One is digging around at the bottom of the feeder while the crazy one is swinging from the “Squirrel-Buster” bird feeder, defying gravity as well as the bird feeder.
It’s kinda chaotic, but also fun to watch.
Yesterday, I watched as the ever-intrepid Nuthatch pecked at the maple, intermittently flying into the Squirrel Buster. Geez, they must be cold I thought. I had asked Michael where he thought the deer were sleeping. I know other low-to-the-ground 4-leggeds burrow themselves: porcupine, raccoon, rabbit, voles, mice…but I’m not seeing the deer do that. I’m still shaking off the carnage scene Michael described to me about a month ago when he came across a coyote kill in the back woods.
Agnes, our all-black hen, was limping last night. Last summer, she was limping and it turns out, the ole girl had an egg stuck. Oh please, not another stuck egg, I thought. That trip cost us $129 and a long car ride to a Yarmouth vet we hardly knew. Maybe her little chicken feet were frostbit? Michael said the other chickens were starting to peck at her, as is their nature: see a weakness, get rid of it.
ANIMALS: living on instinct, adapting much better than we ever could to so many different stimuli. Living here in this wild place, I notice their habits more, when they are on the move (or not). I now know when to let Pippin run free throughout the night so he can chase away and kill the incoming mice (shoulder season, friends! Fall mostly). As the temps drop, I definitely miss seeing certain birds, and assume they have migrated. And I still worry and wonder about the deer: where are they yarding up? (*This is a term I learned from the building inspector at Hollis Town Hall, when he came to check out the Sweet Suite).
And just think about all of the other animals who aren’t on my radar. God, I hope someone else is worrying about them, throwing out a left-over waffle or discarded piece of apple pie out the back door.
But we could learn a lot from the animals because they do something–have mastered it actually–that I think we humans could fine-tune: They Get On With It. They Adopt. Some even Share Resources (or at least don’t run others off from getting at the resources–I’m watching the squirrels and the nuthatches feast literally at the same “table” of snow as I write this).
However. HUMANS possess something that the animals don’t have: a narrative about how things ought to be, and “values” that work to grind away, into the fabric of our experience. We have figured out how to “advance our agenda” and we have the faculty of self-reflection, harboring the ability to “make sense of our existence.”
We might be considered superior to the animals, in light of these abilities. And yet.
I can’t get through this newsletter without saying that the rumbling of unrest, of complete chaos that we have been experiencing for several years now is not rumbling anymore: it’s a forest fire. The soup pot and the forks are flying mid-air through Auntie Em’s kitchen. We’ve dug ourselves in, alright, with our values, agendas, and hunger for power and now everything…is…falling…apart.
Good. What? Does this surprise you? It’s not a popular opinion but I’m going to share it anyway. I happen to be of the camp that many, many systems have not been working FOR ALL OF THE PEOPLE for a long time. When you have a very small percentage in charge of the wealth–to use terms of the squirrel scenario–who have all of the access to the nuts, how they will be grown, sorted, dispersed, and who get to decide if anyone else will be able to purchase them, then you have a model of living that IS NOT SUSTAINABLE. Do you think they really care about equal shares? Is anyone seriously surprised that society is imploding?
Wars are not fought over politics, or even power. Wars are fought over resources. (*I heard this on NPR this week, and I tend to agree!)
The squirrels at the top of the food chain in America got a scent on the wind when President Obama was president that they did not like. In a word, a Black man in the oval office was just too much for most of the racist elite holders-of-the-nuts to take. I’m still trying to puzzle out how they teamed up with the Evangelical Christians to back their racist agenda. Seeing a Black family in the White House was a blinding headlight to these men who muttered to their pals, “WE ARE LOSING GROUND, BROTHERS.”
But it does feel like they’ve doubled-down, doesn’t it? They are doubling down because even a calcified old money-grubbing racist can feel the heat of the forest fire long before he smells the smoke. As society disintegrates, new models that, I believe, celebrate equal shares, will begin to move front and center. Young people will get their proverbial nuts in a row, and they are better at organizing than the older generations (although they have not been forced to do so TO THIS DEGREE). Also, some folks in the ‘older generations’ are the ones leading the protest right on down Congress Street. You bet they have the language, the guts, and the hand-warmers to get through the day and dial up their senators when they get home.
Gen I, Z, and Alpha have been given a shit sandwich from those who came before them. As I watch the almighty reality as we know it crumble, I not only want to be on the right side of history but want to GALVANIZE for what is right FOR ALL. None of us are free, until we are all free, thus spoke DOCTOR MLK Jr.
The squirrels have moved on now. The sun, while writing this, has moved, shifting the warmth from one side of the yard to the far side of the barn. Shells of sunflowers litter the snow, my Bean boots are almost dry, and Molly and Michael will soon traipse out to the barn to load up more wood for the fire. Time to Get On With It.
Please don’t try and catch the flying forks in Auntie Em’s chaotic kitchen, jamming them back in their neat drawers. The time for that is over.
Serve a new model that you think is sustainable for ALL. What could your next action step be? What conversation with your mom, brother, neighbor, friend are you avoiding? Any act of conscious love, mercy or compassion will stabilize more than you know.
Shine On,
Mary Katherine
Embodying the Divine Feminine 