Staying home means enjoying whatever comes
- Bruce Stambaugh: The Rural View
- May 28, 2020
- 905
There are advantages to staying home. The obvious, of course, is it lowers your risk of acquiring the coronavirus.
There is another positive upshot of being homebound. It can stimulate our mental psyche. We just need to be observant.
Being retired for a few years now, I easily grew used to being at home. I thought I knew how to relax and make the best use of my time. The COVID-19 crisis taught me differently.
Having to stay at home, I learned to really pay attention, to simply be thankful, even when the weather was damp and cold. We had a lot of that in April and May all across the Eastern U.S. The typically sunny Shenandoah Valley didn’t escape the dullness either.
I savored the stillness and the lack of interruptions to my new sequestered routines. The steady hum of my wife’s sewing machine transfixed me at times. Altogether, she has made over 600 face masks. Others have made many more and donated them to businesses, medical facilities, agencies that assist the homeless, local institutions and Mennonite Disaster Service.
Rather than grumble about being at home so much, I tried to appreciate each moment at hand. I would often sit at my desk where I write. I raised the Venetian blinds and observed whatever came into view.
Despite the weather, I saw kids on bicycles, people walking dogs, dogs walking people, delivery trucks, northern cardinals searching for food, and American robins bobbing along and gathering nesting material.
I couldn’t count the number of squirrels that came to dig up their buried food caches. Most of the squirrels are gray busybodies. One particular squirrel, however, stood out.
This squirrel was blond, especially its bushy tail. Its pigmentation had to be an anomaly. The squirrely rodent even acted differently, sometimes like it didn’t have a care in the world.
The sun seemed to bleach the squirrel’s tail as it bounded through neighboring backyards on its way to ours. I had seen the squirrel in late winter searching for morsels beneath our birdfeeders. “Blondie” continued to frequent our yard even after I took down the feeders.
The blond squirrel scurried across the open backyard in the middle of the day, its tail flapping in the wind like a golden, glowing flag. The squirrel played at the birdbath, apparently happy for the opportunity to wash its paws and face. Did it somehow know about the coronavirus?
The unusual-looking squirrel felt at home in our maple trees. On the hottest day of the year so far, it stretched out on our green grass, apparently to cool off in the shade of the maple.
Once rested, it returned to its squirrely antics, devouring juicy maple seeds that had just twirled to the ground. Some of its repertoire of poses were almost comical. Its playful personality matched its coloration.
It’s not like the squirrel had it made, however. Other squirrels chased it, not because of its fur color, but because that’s what squirrels do.
The blond always got away unscathed. When the coast was clear, it reappeared, looking for food, or another drink, or just to lounge on a crook in the maple tree, taking in the limited sunshine.
I enjoyed the squirrel’s behaviors and resilience. Unlike the gray squirrels, the blond one somehow seemed contented, satisfied, unfettered, detached from the life of the survival of the fittest of all things wild.
There are important lessons to be learned from watching this fantastic squirrel. No matter what life throws at you, relax, enjoy each moment and, above all, don’t worry.
Bruce Stambaugh writes about nature, weather, hobbies and people, often using personal experiences. Much to their dismay, he also writes about his family. He uses humor and pathos when he can’t think of anything else to include.To read more The Rural View, visit Stambaugh at www.thebargainhunter.com.