The Counsel of squirrels   In lieu of February, the month of love, I want to offer an article that focuses on self-love. In keeping with that spirit, I am going to talk about a topic I am incredibly passionate about and that is how nature inside and around us can easily mirror our growth and support us in difficult times. We all can witness examples of this every day. However, sometimes we may imagine that we are isolated. This can, in turn, lead to a feeling of alienation, even if we are surrounded by people. This is when we can struggle with whether we deserve love. Of course, we always deserve love; however, sometimes we all need to be reminded. These feelings of disconnection may be pure projection on our part. In this case, we actually have ongoing support, but can’t see it based on what we are telling ourselves about how others see us, or sometimes the stories we are telling ourselves about them. At times like this, we need to be reminded that we are loved so we can reconnect to the love that is all around us. Other times people are truly just busy with their lives and so they may not have time to listen to us, or grab a cup of tea or spend an afternoon watching movies. At these times we may feel abandoned, but the good news is we don’t need to. Part of adult life is occasionally finding ourselves so busy that we have little time to seek out the support we need for ourselves.  On these days especially, we need to practice the art of appreciation for ourselves and with others. We can slow down and give love to others where we feel we most lack it. This helps us get the love energy flowing again. And when the love energy is flowing, it gains momentum by being recognized and well, loved. I experienced this deep loving connection recently and it has opened up a whole new ongoing chapter of deeper listening in my life. I started consciously working with squirrel medicine.  Now, when I think back on it, working with this medicine actually started immediately upon moving into the house. The day we moved in, a squirrel fell about 80 feet from one of the highest limbs of an oak tree in our new front yard. He fell on his stomach into the middle of the street. He seemed okay in the short term as he righted himself sluggishly. However, I was concerned he had ruptured some organs. Frozen in terror, I just stood there.  When I finally regained my composure, I noticed that he had run across the street and was circling around the circumference of a neighbor’s tree. I looked at him very closely and noticed some markings on the side of his face that made him stand out from the other little squirrel friends in the adjoining yards. I checked on him for several days until I felt assured that he had survived the fall. Now listening intuitively, I knew that this little squirrel’s unfortunate plummet to earth had a message for me in it. He fell from a top branch, which was why I was shocked to see that he was not hurt. This squirrel was a survivor. And all squirrels are gatherers. Squirrels always store provisions for inclement weather and lean times. They prepare themselves for the unknown future. Half of the nuts they gather they bury again. This little guy showed me that this move would require me to be a survivor and that I would survive many a fall and be stronger for it. It also was an augury of the fact that we would have great resources if we saved some of them up, like squirrel does. After the clear messages I received, I wanted to give back. I became very intrigued with the idea of giving these little ones nuts and started out by placing them on the little wooden table on our front porch. The squirrels loved it and several of the more daring ones would come and perch on the little table and peer in the window of my office. In turn, I would peer back appreciating the uniqueness of each extraordinary individual squirrel. There was one we called slant because he would always lean to the right. Another, Arabelle, would do this little sideways jump and kind of click her back heels together as if she could hardly contain her excitement as she ran across the porch. Then there was Nathaniel, he had heavy upper arms just like a body builder. Anyway, the more I watched and appreciated them, the more uniqueness I noticed. Each tiny little movement was imbued with meaning. I was drawn to the feeding ritual. I became interested in seeing if I could get them to come with a call. So I started singing a calling song—an apt verse about the beauty, constancy and changing qualities of nature from Judy Collins “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”. I did this for maybe a week and a half; soon they recognized the song as I laid out there nuts on the porch. They had become used to the song and relied on it as a sign that they could count on a new row of nuts on the table. They were now relaxed and would come running from several doors away. Sometimes there were three or four, sometimes as many as seven or eight. Our porch was truly squirrel central station. The message here is that when we can’t draw support from the people in our lives directly, we can draw it from communing with the universe. All of nature speaks, all of the time. All we need to do is watch it patiently and lovingly. If we watch how it changes and we notice what we feel as it does, we will have deepened the connection with our own feelings. We will, in time and with practice, find it easier to move through stuck feelings and difficult emotions, with the support of an intelligent, wise and playful universe at our side. Through this process we will have reconnected with a deep reservoir of awareness and intuition in ourselves. And awareness leads to appreciation which cannot help but lead to deeper love. I was certainly feeling this powerful connection with my squirrel friends. Then came the fateful day that their inquisitiveness and mine collided. I opened the door getting ready to place a nut on the table. I looked down, and of course, it was Arabelle.  She was perched in the middle of the chair.  Her little muzzle was sniffing at my hand with expectant eyes and so much trust. I had to trust too, I held the nut out to her with caution and hope. Just like that, she took it gently in her mouth and scampered down from the chair back and then she was off and bounding across the street in an instant. Within about three days, she was sitting on the back of the chair anticipating what had now become a more than daily encounter. Each time, she was gentle. I noticed that if I held the nut in one hand and placed my fingers on my heart center gently tapping there, she too would make the same movement with her little squirrel hand. It was this mirroring gesture that I believe helped her to feel connected to me. I believe she felt and saw the reciprocity in this ritual gesture. I noticed other squirrel friends watching Arabelle at a safe distance from the table on both corners of the porch. Within maybe a day or two of this studied watching they started running across the little table, gingerly and carefully at first. However, they became more emboldened as they heard the song echoing in the morning or in the early afternoon. Each one now knew to make their way to the back of the chair as they had seen Arabelle do. Each one received the gift of a fancy nut from my hand. Now often they are waiting for me in the mornings as I am rubbing sleepy sand out of my eyes. Sometimes their small bodies are framed by the orange and pink light of the sunrise. Well, one afternoon not too long ago, I was feeling particularly down about an ongoing issue that I needed to resolve. At that time, I was feeling the gauntlet of heaviness circling around me as it pulled me to a darker place.  This was triggering huge insecurities about deservingness and self-worth. Additionally this was a time where everyone had their own problems to deal with. So I was feeling like a lost motherless child that morning, in that freeze place while anticipating dealing with the situation and terrified to do so. In fact, I was so caught up in my pain body that I just had to take a break, so I called my partner and she suggested that I consult the counsel of squirrels on this. And that was the moment when everything changed. I was peering out the front window still imagining the worst when I noticed Arabelle, my sweet squirrel friend, climbing up and down the brick pillar on our porch. She was fluffing up her nest with little piles of leaves she was carrying in her mouth. I became mesmerized watching her. She was so busy and so focused, a model of utility. It felt as though the utility of her actions left no room for error. She looked over and peered in at me through the window. Then she turned around midway up the column and raced back down, still holding a small bunch of leaves in her mouth. Just as quickly, she jumped onto the little table and, still peering in at me, dropped the little bundle of leaves right in front of me. And then she ran to the back of the chair where l usually feed them. She started thumping her tail furiously as if to say, “This leaf pile is for you.” I was truly amazed by the deliberateness of her gesture. I didn’t know squirrels practiced the law of reciprocity. Of course, I went outside and fed her a nut and as she scampered down the chair and onto the porch floor, she turned around and looked back at me, as if to reassure me of the purpose of our connection. All of a sudden, I felt the gift and guidance in her gesture. The energy she carried, that get the job done energy, transferred to me. Something in Arabelle’s sweet gesture, her willingness to care for me when I felt undeserving helped me figure out what I needed to do to take better care of myself. I knew for the first time that morning that I could advocate for myself. And that if I was deliberate, and purposeful in my actions I would be heard and the situation would be resolved. I also knew that, just like Arabelle running back down the column to share her gift, I knew too that if I ran into a situation where someone was not listening I too could ask for a do over. I had the ability to turn around midway and move toward clearer support. This is how wisely and magically the universe speaks if we are willing and open to listen. It requires us to move away from our pain body. It requires us to connect with the universe, and trust that nature and creativity can move us to a new place on our healing journey. Most of all, it requires us to connect with energy outside of ourselves. It asks us to move from a place of isolation to one of connection. I invite you to ponder where you feel disconnected, where you feel undeserving of support. I assure you the tools and gifts you need are there. Step outside of what your limiting beliefs tell you about your options. Step away from anyone who suggests you are undeserving or have limited options. Trust that the energy of the universe can help you resolve anything in your life. Look for the bright spots of color on your journey…for the places and creatures that allow you to connect with a building sense of reverence. This is where the support, healing and solutions begin. Views:]]>