A Hermit’s Musings On What Can Be Gleaned From Squirrels

15 Minute Read

The Foolinahurry Blog
By korzen designs

Introduction

Through the study and interaction with our neighborhood squirrels, many revelations have occurred to me. The least of all of these being that each of the squirrels not only possess a completely unique and individual identity, but that each carries the physical, and mental traits of their closest relatives. This is written with the hope that, through study and understanding of the urban squirrels that live amongst us, we may be able to relate to them while learning of the similarities and differences between our own level of consciousness and their seemingly lower level of consciousness, so that we can apply that knowledge to relating to and learning of the similarities and differences be our level of consciousness and the seemingly higher level of consciousness that appears to exist.

The Birth of a New Era

In the beginning, there was a desolate and barren land. This land however was a potential paradise; for it was the last natural place in a bigger land full of destruction. This bigger land was filled with mechanical beasts that roamed; while the land of ours was filled with natural beasts that roamed. Food was scarce and we had no choice but to rely on the scraps of the gods and beasts that surrounded us. It was in this barren place, during the most challenging time, that something occurred. It began with the removal of the beasts. No one knows what became of them, but in the way an unattended nut will vanish, so did these beasts. Shortly after the natural beasts were removed one of the mechanical beasts in the bigger land slayed one of our own. It was as their corpse lay in the road that the gods arrived.

Ursie was the first of us to make contact with the new gods as she made her home in the canopy above the desolate and barren land. As with all gods she was skeptical of their intentions, but being a difficult time, she had little choice but to trust the gods when they offered her food. The gods spoke to her as no god ever had, and it was there and then that she received her name. Ursie was not alone in the land, she and Reggie raised two brothers, Major and Minor. She spread her message that the new gods were loving to Reggie, Major, and Minor, and through the land into the urban surroundings. As more of us came to witness, more did the gods deliver. Not only were peanuts abundant, but the gods provided seed in the sky and fruit in the ground. They provided water and erected structures for our comfort and safety. In these days there were Ursie, Reggie, Major, Minor, Ali, and Eta.

The Introduction of the Loving Beast

Shortly after the arrival of the gods to our land, in the time that we were still unsure of their intention, we were tested. The gods introduced a new beast to our land, not unlike those that roamed before, but much smaller. This beast was seemingly as those before, for his only intention seemed to be chase and capture, but this beast was loved by the gods. And so powerful was the gods love that it was able to penetrate the heart of the beast. It was soon evident and known that the gods had provided this beast to give chase from a place of love and play. Through the practice of his chase, this beast taught us how to avoid chase from the beasts that chase from fear; from those that chase from a desire, a hunger, to devour the life around them so that they may grow stronger and live on.

The Exorcism of the Sky Beast

Although the gods brought love, even theirs was not powerful enough to end the reign of the sky beasts. The arrival of the gods had lead to many great things, and they not only loved us, but also the bunnies. ’Twas on an average day that a sky beast dropped down and captured a baby bunny. We all watched together in horror from our hiding places as the sky beast devoured the bunny and just as the sky beast had taken the last bit of life out of the bunny, one of the gods appeared. The god made noises toward the sky beast, but the beast was not shaken. The god made more powerful noises and yet the beast was still unshaken. It was in then that the god showed us that he was our shepherd and had the power to protect us all. The god made the most powerful sound, and it was that of a different kind of sky beast. This sound shook the sky beast from his perch and exorcised him from the land. Although the gods were not more powerful than the sky beasts, we knew that they would protect us from them.

The Union of the Crows

The crows who feed on our corpses, and the corpses of the bunnies and mice, have been difficult to see as our brothers in nature. They fly amongst the sky beasts in large murderous groups, and have a shrill and complex language that is seemingly impossible to comprehend, even for the gods. It was a time of tribulation for us when the gods began to provide for these ravenous cousins of the sky beasts. The crows were not happy with the gifts of the gods and began to wander the land and dig up our nut stashes for their own consumption. We tried to defend ourselves and our food, and we questioned why the gods would be so cruel. But just as the gods had brought us the Loving Beast, they also made union with the crows. For one day two sky beasts appeared together and perched above our land. As they surveyed the life of the land in ultraviolet scope, the union between the gods and the crows was made clear. For the crows gathered and swarmed around the sky beasts; the bravest of them set aside their fears based in their knowledge that the sky beasts were much greater in strength and size, and dove at them to give chase. Alas, the sky beasts retreated and we were no longer in the darkness of their shadows; for light had been shed on the importance of the crows and their union with the gods. The crows could protect us from the sky beasts as messengers from the gods. For the gods knew that since the crows consumed our corpses, and the corpses of the bunnies and mice as well, they were filled with our spirits and those of our families and friends; that they were driven by that which they consumed. And that with the consumption of the spirts of ours in combination with the consumption of the love of the gods it made visible the love and light in their ravenous and dark ways.

The Actualization of the Brother Major

Early in their reign the gods provided many things. Of these were structures for our comfort and safety. It was through these structures and the love of the gods, that the Brother Major, the brother of Minor whom partnered with Meg, was able to move past his basic natural desires and develop an acrobatic style that was to be unlike that which any of us had ever dared to imagine. The rest of us were happy to be cared for and fed by the gods, but the brother Major wanted more. It was this desire that drove the brother Major to train his body. He trained in every moment which he was able; while we lounged with our bellies full of peanuts and questioned if the brother Major had an unsound mind that drove this desire for more than the gods had provided. After all, what use was it to train his body beyond that of anyone before him when the gods were providing all we needed to live in happiness and comfort? What more would all of this play which he called work bring to him? Nothing. It in the end would bring him nothing, but this is what the Brother Major understood. His desire to train his body was only possible because his mind was truly sound and free from all other desires, for all of his natural desires had been provided for by the gods. We believed our minds sound, but through the brother Major, we were able to see that our minds were only pacified by the peanuts and comfort provided to us and not truly satisfied; for deep down we all feared that this paradise would one day end. But the Brother Major was able to see his mind would be truly sound and free from desire if he had faith that the gods would eternally provide for him, and it was this revelation gave birth to his spiritual desire. The training of the Brother Major brought him nothing, but his faith that the gods would provide made him desire nothing, and in desiring nothing he decided that all of the actions he would take, would not be for him, but for those who come after, for just as he became the most acrobatic of all of us, he knew his spirited actions would someday inspire someone to become more acrobatic than he.

The Resurrection of Goofy

In the time of the choke cherry, which is a time of great celebration, where the land produces fruits whose ingestion creates a sense of elation and playful impulsivity, our brother Goofy was made sick. He lost facility over his basic function and movement. He could not walk, stand, or climb. He was forced to crawl and in so became inevitably susceptible to the sky beasts. The gods saw this and removed the shells of peanuts, almonds, walnuts, and Brazil nuts. They surround him with these shelled nuts, as well as with water, but Goofy was dead. The gods then surrounded Goofy with slices of what they called Apples; for they were crunchy like a nut, but also soft like water. These apples provided the water Goofy could not drink and the food he could not chew, and they brought the life back to Goofy. After several days he began to walk again. Later he began to stand, and even later he began to climb. Goofy was not the same, for he did not move like the rest of us anymore; his eyes were able to see independently from each other; as there were the two gods, he now had two separate eyes to see.

The Gospel According to Ursie

It was I Ursie whom first made contact with the gods above all gods. I am unlike others, for I was born a prophet with the energies of both my father and my mother. I believe this to be the reason why the gods chose me to spread their message even before their arrival to our land. I had made my home in the south of the barren land with the roaming beasts, for although it was hostile my foresight showed me the potential of paradise. My partner in the raising of the brothers Major and Minor, was Reggie. Reggie was the first to receive from me the news that the gods had arrived, for I was in the west near his home when the gods appeared to me. Their appearance frightened me, for I was caught off my guard as the land was barren, but they immediately called to me in my own language and provided me with a peanut. They called me Ursie and gave me more love than any god before them. They accepted my family with the same love they had given to me. From this time forward I spent my life spreading their love and looking towards the sky for the love of the gods to shower down onto me like a rainstorm of peanuts.

The Gospel According to Ali

I was born with the heart of a lion whom the gods called Leo and this lions heart was called Algieba. This lion was a god before the gods before those which I call gods. I did not always know this, but it was through the prophet Ursie, who was of the energy of both her Father and her Mother, that the gods spoke. It was the prophet Ursie that the gods sent to me so that I could follow her to the kingdom and realize whom I was. This realization did not come upon my arrival, but after much suffering. When I arrived in the kingdom I found comfort in all that the gods provided and I bore several pups with several partners, for I was born with the heart of a lion and the others could see this. I was loved by the others and was very happy and comfortable with my faith in knowing the gods would provide. In my second year I developed mange that made the others sick with disgust when they looked at me. I became bald and thin and desolate, and I did not understand why. But the gods understood and lifted me above the others; they told me who I was. They told me that I am Ali, that I was born with the heart of the lion that they called Leo, and that I was to live eternally. They told me that to live eternally would mean accepting eternal suffering for it is not possible to truly live without suffering. “But I have already suffered what feels like an eternity!” I cried to them; but then I saw clearly. For just as they had given me the name Ali, I had given my own existence the name Suffering. Just as the gods named the eternal being that I call Me, Ali; so to could I give name to my own existence. And it was then, when I saw clearly, that I decided to change the name of my existence from Suffering to Living; for I was born with the the heart of a lion whom the gods called Leo.

The Gospel According to Scar Face Goofy Tail

I am but a pilgrim to the promised land. For I have led a life that deviated greatly from that of the Brother Major. I am a liar and a thief, but also, I am now much more. I have had a turbulent life and through my escapades have been greatly injured by the rolling machines as well as the sky beasts, and even by my own brothers. Least of all my troubles is that of the broken tail I carry behind me like a reminder of the burden that I once was. The miserable and wretched monster that came to promised land to pillage and plunder for my own desires and pleasures. I defaecated on their thrones and chewed through shutters only to urinate on the windows of their kingdom. And thru the urine stained windows I could not see through to the gods inside, but alas, they could see through to me. They could see through my urine that covered the windows, through scars covering my face, and past the broken tail that I carried behind me; for they could see me. And stop at the sight that must have been so very disgusting to them, they did not. Despite my unworthiness they provided for me, just as they had provided for the Mother Ursie and the Brother Major. I did not walk the road to the promised land as pilgrim, but I became a pilgrim after I arrived. For the most divine pilgrimages are the ones we walk blindly in faith so that we may someday see clearly.

The Gospel According to the Brothers

We the Brothers do not know the gods like our contemporaries do. We were orphaned and left in the land of the gods. We knew not anyone but each other in our early days. We lived in fear of not just the gods and of the beasts, but also in fear of our neighbors. Unlike those before us we had no teachings or teachers, but like some of those before us, we could feel. We could feel an intuition, a powerful and spiritual presence, something we would later come to call The Spirit of the Brother Major. For when we were very young and hungry the Brother Major came to us in spirit and revealed to us that although we hunger for peanuts there is a much deeper hunger. A deeper hunger that can only be felt if have faith that the gods will provide us with peanuts for our natural hunger. We were hungry and did not understand; and just then The Spirit of the Brother Major swept us up and threw us from our branches. It sent us falling down deep into the lower levels of the evergreen tree that we called home. We fell for what felt like and eternity, and just as we had nearly reached the bottom The Spirit of the Brother Major entered our bodies and minds; it sharpened our claws and defined our muscles; it showed us how to slow and stop our fall. Once we had settled and regained ourselves, the spirit then showed us how to climb up. We had climbed before, but never in this way. The Spirit of the Brother Major is now within us, and we are now those who come after.

The Revelation to Eta

Early in the reign of the gods we were tested with the introduction of the Loving Beast whom the gods called Bear. This beast was like those before him, but smaller. He gave chase to us and instilled fear as the beasts before him had. His chase was intricate and brisk, and to all of those whom he gave chase fled more intricately and briskly than he. But this did not slow his chase, but made him stronger and more cunning; for this beast was infinitely relentless. It was on a day that this beast was giving chase to all of us that Eta arrived from her home in the East. The beast gave her chase, but she did not flee more intricately and briskly than he as the others had before, for she stoped and turned to face the beast; and rather than capture her, the beast paused to face her and then fled himself. Eta stopping to face the beast revealed a great truth to us; this beast was unlike the beasts before him in that he was full of the love of the gods; and his chase was rooted in love of chase, and not rooted in fear of hunger like the beasts before him. There will always be beasts to bear as long as we flee, but if we stop to face them we may see the gods love inside of them, and no longer will they give us chase.