Autumn Squirrels

It’s harvest season again. That used to mean something to humans when we lived close to Nature. When we were each keenly aware that our food supply was part of the yearly cycle of our planet. Before commercial farming and global agriculture and supermarkets, we each knew where our food came from. It was grown in our own fields, or foraged and hunted from our surroundings. And we knew how our food supply depended upon the seasons. We knew the season to plant, the season to cultivate and grow, and the season to harvest. But that antiquated awareness is now gone for most of us. We now do our gathering at 24-hour supermarkets and restaurants which seem to always have a bounty of food available, no matter the season.

 

But while modern humans no longer associate their food supply with the seasons, most other life forms still do, which means that October is still the harvest season for many. It’s the time when surplus food is quickly gathered and stored away for the coming of Winter. And so it is for squirrels in Virginia.

 

In my area of Virginia, the squirrels seemed particularly active this Autumn. I have a large walnut tree just outside my door so I have a front-row seat to the harvest. There are always two or three squirrels in the tree this time of year, scurrying up and down the limbs and around the trunk, cutting walnuts from the tree and dropping them to the ground, then picking them up and carrying them off. Very industrious! Always on the run. Is this a stressful time of year for them? Do they feel a sense of urgency?

 

I love watching squirrels during the harvest. Their behaviour personifies many of our most esteemed values. They work hard, and benefit from their own labour. They plan ahead, and save for tomorrow. And they’re independent, each relying upon themself to gather their own nuts. There is no "nut factory". No working for "Nuts, Inc.". No investing in the "nut market". Want to eat this winter? Go gather some nuts! And so they toil on, each one of them, gathering all the nuts that can be found until each has enough to carry them through until Spring. Some will be more fortunately than others, but each has their own equal chance, so long as they work hard.

 

And they all work hard! Running up and down trees, this way and that, always on the run! Especially when they’re away from the woods and out on the roads. Standing just at the edge of the road, looking first in one direction, then quickly spinning to face the other. Taking a quick step or two, then stopping, and turning again. "Come on, little fellow, make up your mind!" I’d say to myself, slowing my vehicle as I approached them, until finally there was nothing more to do then to commit to my chosen route, hoping that I had correctly predicted their next move, which I often did, but sometimes didn’t.

 

I hit only one this year, but had plenty of near misses, as I did a few weeks ago. I was driving along a narrow country road when I spotted a squirrel ahead on my right, just at the edge of the road. As I began slowing down, planning how to avoid him, I realised that the oncoming vehicle would be just to my left at the very moment that I reached the squirrel. I wouldn’t be able to swerve, so I tried to slow down even more but there was no way to fully stop before reaching him. It would be up to the squirrel now.

 

The little guy stood up on his hind legs just as I and the other vehicle closed in on him. He was facing the road, and took a quick few steps toward us, but then quickly spun around and ran safely off into the tall grass to my right. Relieved, I looked up and smiled and waved at the oncoming driver.

 

He was an older man in his sixties with neat grey hair. He wore a dress shirt and drove a clean, new Ford F-350. He looked at me but didn’t wave back, seemingly unaware that he and I had just collaborated to save a squirrel! As he passed, I joked to myself, "Nice truck. Must have cost a lot of nuts. Wonder which trees he gathered from?" I looked in my mirror, expecting to perhaps see a "Nuts, Inc." bumper sticker on his truck, but there wasn’t one.

 

We’ve come far since our days of hunting and gathering, but we’ve lost much along the way, too. While our physical hunger has been satisfied, our spiritual hunger has increased in the bargain. Now, instead of gathering nuts, we must all gather money to carry us through the seasons. And our money-machines are not nearly as nurturing as our Mother Earth.