I enjoy responses to these weekly writings or musings or reflections or whatever you want to call this Thursday thing. A couple of weeks ago when I told you about losing my credit card… not knowing how to use the push button start on the rental car…. then leaving the rental car running because I didn’t understand that you had to push the button to turn it off as well and what else was it… I forget…Anyway after that memo, my good friend Drake Talbert said, “You need a vacation.” Drake is often right, and so this week Katie and I are taking a few days up north at the family cabin.
One of the more relaxing things to do up here is just sitting by the patio windows watching the birds come and go to the bird feeders. My wife purchased this one birdfeeder in the hope it would keep the squirrels out…As you can see it doesn’t work so well…So we also watch this one little red squirrel come and go from the bird feeder. That’s right this is a picture of a red squirrel INSIDE the birdfeeder.
This little red squirrel will come up to the patio door… stare down our dog Otto, who is going crazy… Otto doesn’t like squirrels. After getting Otto all wound up, the squirrel will jump onto the screen of the patio door, hold on for a moment, and then jump onto the lip of the bird feeder and then just step into it.
She sits there and eats and eats and eats. She’s protected from the birds and other grey squirrels… she’s so comfortable that you have to go outside and practically shake the bird feeder to get her to leave. What is that?
You could say a squirrel finding a way inside a birdfeeder is a lot of things. Determination for one… Courage and ingenuity…. Desperation… What it is for me today however is just interesting. It’s one of those things you hope to see when you are taking a couple of days or hours or minutes to slow down and notice something other than how distracted you are by life. … it’s one of those things you have to be here for a couple of days to fully appreciate.
There is the laughter of surrender by my wife who engages in the bird feeder versus squirrels struggle at home, at the cabin… and at every store we go to that has the newest, squirrel-resistant bird feeder. There is the dog. Otto never gives up…. He will push his nose against the glass forever in anticipation that this time, it’s gonna give way. I’m not sure he’d know what to do with the squirrel if he got it, but the thrill of his chase is fun to watch. And then of course there is the squirrel herself. Just out for some food on a sunny February day with two people and a dog to watch while she has lunch.
Thinking about this causes me to wonder how it is that so many of the great things that are happening these days at EPUMC are also things you have to be there in order to experience fully. There’s the rush of kids leaving for Sunday School… the look on the faces of the choir at the end of an anthem…the din of chatter in the fellowship hall after worship. I’m looking forward to seeing you there on Sunday.
One of the more relaxing things to do up here is just sitting by the patio windows watching the birds come and go to the bird feeders. My wife purchased this one birdfeeder in the hope it would keep the squirrels out…As you can see it doesn’t work so well…So we also watch this one little red squirrel come and go from the bird feeder. That’s right this is a picture of a red squirrel INSIDE the birdfeeder.
This little red squirrel will come up to the patio door… stare down our dog Otto, who is going crazy… Otto doesn’t like squirrels. After getting Otto all wound up, the squirrel will jump onto the screen of the patio door, hold on for a moment, and then jump onto the lip of the bird feeder and then just step into it.
She sits there and eats and eats and eats. She’s protected from the birds and other grey squirrels… she’s so comfortable that you have to go outside and practically shake the bird feeder to get her to leave. What is that?
You could say a squirrel finding a way inside a birdfeeder is a lot of things. Determination for one… Courage and ingenuity…. Desperation… What it is for me today however is just interesting. It’s one of those things you hope to see when you are taking a couple of days or hours or minutes to slow down and notice something other than how distracted you are by life. … it’s one of those things you have to be here for a couple of days to fully appreciate.
There is the laughter of surrender by my wife who engages in the bird feeder versus squirrels struggle at home, at the cabin… and at every store we go to that has the newest, squirrel-resistant bird feeder. There is the dog. Otto never gives up…. He will push his nose against the glass forever in anticipation that this time, it’s gonna give way. I’m not sure he’d know what to do with the squirrel if he got it, but the thrill of his chase is fun to watch. And then of course there is the squirrel herself. Just out for some food on a sunny February day with two people and a dog to watch while she has lunch.
Thinking about this causes me to wonder how it is that so many of the great things that are happening these days at EPUMC are also things you have to be there in order to experience fully. There’s the rush of kids leaving for Sunday School… the look on the faces of the choir at the end of an anthem…the din of chatter in the fellowship hall after worship. I’m looking forward to seeing you there on Sunday.
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