My husband loves all things squirrel, which can sometimes be a problem, since he also loves all things cat. We love to watch the squirrels daringly run and jump through the large trees in our backyard. On the rare occasion that a squirrel gets low in the tree, our outdoor cat colony gets in
hunting mode and the squirrels seem to taunt them.
For Christmas, I bought my husband a squirrel picnic table. We finally ordered the dried corn-on-the-cob to attach to the table, and just last week, he nailed it to a tree in our backyard. We are hoping it’s installed high enough to let the squirrels eat safely without risking any threats from the outside cats.
We keep looking for signs of squirrel visits, but so far we’re seeing nothing. Perhaps they are so conditioned to stay away from our cats that they aren’t even noticing their new picnic table and the inviting dried ear of corn.
A while back, I shared that I had started a practice of sitting for fifteen minutes of nothing a day. This is a time to be totally present, cease my constant thinking and engage my senses to notice what’s happening right now.
Much of the time, I sat in my living room for this practice and suddenly began to really see the room. It felt like I was seeing it for the first time in a long time, despite so much time spent in there, plus walking through it on the way to and from the rest of the house.
I had forgotten how much I really like my living room. It’s pretty. But prior to my new stillness practice, I may have been just as blind to something new being put in there as the squirrels apparently are to their new picnic table.
We can get so entrenched in our routines that we run on autopilot and seldom take time to really see and appreciate our world. Not only do we miss out on anything new, we’re missing out on the gifts we already have.
When is the last time you looked at your life from a bird’s eye view? What do you love about it? What have you been taking for granted? Could there be new gifts that have been dropped into your territory just waiting to be discovered? Open eyes see more gifts to open.
For today, take time to really observe your life. Look for all the gifts right under your nose. And say grace…
