Chase Scene

Well, it is spring and the squirrels are having at it. We have this unique community of black squirrels that someone introduced into our neighborhood - they only live on the east side of the main street, in about a 5 block area in my neighborhood. The gray squirrels and the black squirrels do not get along at all. They have these incredible chasing events in which they run around and around the tree trunks, up and down the trees. jumping from one high branch to another, finally giving up when one or the other manages to fool his pursuer by stopping on a dime and remaining perfectly still.

A couple of nights ago it was fairly mild and I was out on the deck enjoying the night air. The sky was an incredible indigo color, about an hour after sunset, and all of a sudden all hell broke lose. I couldn't see them, but some squirrels got into an incredible chase, making strange noises like screaming monkeys and running about in the treetops and up and down the trees in what must have been some amazing acrobatics. "In the night?", my housemate asked. Yes, in the night. Someone of them must have tried to raid a nest, or steal some food, or snuggle up where he shouldn't have. As quickly as it started, it stopped, and I was left wondering how it all turned out.

Next day, there was some gray fur in the yard, and so, now, there is a gray squirrel around somewhere missing a quite significant patch of fur somewhere on his little body. Must be incredible, being able to run around the trees like that, at breakneck speed.

New Folds in the Brain

Attachment - that which keeps us from realizing our true nature as immortal souls, sons and daughters of God. I am attached to rich foods and refined sugars and flours, and I have an incredible attachment to a past relationship. Over and over I resolve to give these things up, but when I pass through the bake shop and smell the sugar cookies fresh out of the oven, or I learn that a past love is in another relationship, I eat the cookie and I feel jealousy over the new relationship. It takes 8 years to completely develop a new habit, good or bad - years of struggling against these things that I know are not good for me and hinder my progress in my quest to find God. Years of erasing the folds in my brain that are deeply creased with those bad habits, years in making new folds of good habits.

Well, at least this gives me something to do, each moment of every day.