Crow and Squirrel

We have our life and being within a web of relationships. Most of these relationships predate our presence as humans. They all have much to teach us but like classroom students in late May, we mostly aren’t paying attention.

Take Squirrel and Crow for example. I was idly gazing out from the upstairs yoga room at 151 between spiritual direction sessions, when I saw Squirrel and Crow foraging in the yard, in close proximity. My first take was, I am witnessing random behavior, which is often the first clue of cluelessness. Saying this behavior is random is another way of saying I don’t really know what I’m seeing or perhaps I don’t care what I’m seeing. My initial curiosity was around what their interaction would be as the two different species came close together. How will they respond to one another? They had my attention. I kept watching.

It quickly became apparent that they didn’t just bump into each other on a Tuesday morning out on the yard. I slowly began to see that they were in close proximity on purpose. For the better part of twenty minutes they were never more than ten feet apart. Their foraging was under Hickory. The relational plot deepened. Both animals rely on Hickory for some of their sustenance. Squirrel is great at opening the hard shells and burying them throughout the yard. Crow is great at probing with its long bill for nut fragments or to unearth one of those nuts Squirrel buried last fall. When either of them would find something edible the other would rush in and see if some of it could be had. On the one hand, it made for a not so peaceful pattern of feeding, for they were not eating alone; but on the other hand, they found more food together than they would have on their own. It is not a cuddly relationship, but it is a beneficial relationship, nevertheless.

I project onto Squirrel the thought, “I know I buried that nut right around here somewhere,” while Crow watches closely Squirrel’s progress, with the hope of grabbing some of that nut when it comes up. Or Crow probing into the ground as it always does, coming upon something edible and Squirrel rushes in to get a piece of it if possible. Crow knows that without Squirrel, a shelled hickory nut does Crow no good. Squirrel knows that it will never remember all the places it has buried shells and it is hoping Crow’s probing will bring up some of them. Hickory in its great silence is trusting that some of the nuts Squirrel buried will not be found by Squirrel or Crow and new hickory trees will sprout from them.

Friends, let us follow the relational path to the heart of the living world.

Love and Peace, Glenn