Making Your Nut

Unless you are some sort of endurance athlete or a young person, the summer heat in Austin can be debilitating. It creates a sense of isolation; where you minimize the amount of time spent driving in the heat and the glare. As a rule, I live by the belief that you are only allowed to bitch about extreme weather if you work in it. So I’m not complaining, but I am acknowledging the feelings about it. In particular, not being able to be out in nature.

Thankfully, we have a covered back patio and squirrels and birds to entertain and serenade us (and the occasional skunk, possum, and raccoon). My morning ritual is to get up early and sit in my chair to drink my coffee, peruse the news and social feeds, journal, and do my meditation/presence practice.

This morning, my meditation practice was watching a squirrel hunt for and eat nuts. I couldn’t help but hear the “Mission Impossible” soundtrack as she scampered down the thinnest of branches, hung by her paws, and then nut in hand, balanced perfectly on a swaying limb and efficiently devour her catch.

I admit to a little mammalian jealousy. She is perfectly designed for the environment she is in. Nature provides, and with diligence and focus, she simply receives. She has no to-do lists, no calendar, no plans, no drama, no distractions, no social pressure to fit in, no existential angst, no affluenza.

It appears that early humans and then indigenousness people lived the most like this squirrel. They were much more connected to the rhythms of nature. They lived by Kairos time; the natural pace of days, moon cycles, and seasons.

Alas, none of us are squirrels and a tiny fraction of us live truly with nature. We do have to-do lists, plans, and calendars. We do need money. We do want to have a good life. But like the squirrel, we have to become more adept at using the way we are designed to draw abundance from life. Like the squirrel, we have to find the balance on the shaking limbs of life so that we can consume that which keeps body and soul alive.