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Clean Our Slates – ND #24

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Ace of Swords – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Clean Our Slates

2022 has arrived. We’re embarking upon an opportunity to clean our slates, begin anew, and re-set our internal aspiration-clocks.

So much has changed in our personal and collective worlds over the past two years. More, if you start counting at the 2016 election. But the last two years, dominated as they’ve been by a pandemic of the body and a pandemic of the mind, have brought us to the brink – right now – where many people are beginning to crack under the pressure.

I’m concerned that we’re on the precipice of experiencing a pandemic of the spirit.

Wasteland

I’m reminded of the foundational card I chose on our behalf last week from the Tarot of the Crone. I chose the Shadow of Wands – Wasteland. What could be more awful and feel more like we’re living in a wasteland than when we feel unheard, unseen, and misunderstood? Not much.

I look around and try to listen to what’s being said and the pervasive feeling that comes through is hopelessness. And when we lose hope, we lose our vitality.

As we enter this new year, how can we avoid lapsing into despair? Is there something we can focus upon or learn that can help us reclaim hope for ourselves and our world?

A New Perspective

Asking these very same questions of the tarot deck I used last week, I received the following answer:  Ace of Swords/The World.

I have to smile when the cards seem so on point in responding to my query. I promise you, I let the questions in the paragraph above flow out of my fingertips onto the page. I then picked up my deck and shuffled with the essence of the questions filling my heart and reaching out for guidance. And as stated above, I chose the Ace of Swords – and the foundational card was The World.

This looked and felt familiar to me, so I did a search of all my posts and – lo and behold – I discovered that I actually chose both of these cards at the same time back on 31 August 2020. Two months before the election. The only difference was that The World was on top and the Ace of Wands was on the bottom. They’re switched now. But how incredibly fascinating that these cards have shown up for us – together – before?!

I was completely surprised when I read the prior post and saw that I’d chosen the word Perspective the day before! What are the chances that we’re revisiting all of these ‘issues’ again? Given the present state of affairs? The chances are huge. That it’s playing out for us all to see in the cards is especially affirming, and even more concerning.

For Your Contemplation

Perhaps we’re being shown the way to begin healing ourselves and our world (especially our country). Showing up as they have, together again, these cards are at least worthy of our contemplation:

Ace of Swords ~ Thought

“In my Sight/ In my Mind/ Is the Power to Perceive

The One or the Many/ Worlds of Creation

A great blue eye shines with stars within and reaches out to a piercing point. The Ace of Swords, the root power of the Mind is Thought. See now with fresh eyes. Hear with new ears. Perception is a power not to inhibit or to take lightly. Strive now for lucidity. Foresee what may be and speak your truth. Settle for nothing less than original thought. What is your vision? It is time to share what you see, what you know. Let the world not be diminished by the lack of your voice.”

XXI – The World – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

XXI ~World

“I am all you have been/ And all you will become

I am the exercise/ Of your power

And the key/ To your future

In the World, a large black figure holds twenty-one smaller figures within her. Each of the smaller figures has a face colored to represent the special power she possesses. The fact of the larger World, however, is transparent. Through it and hallowed around her is the swirling blue and white of a beautiful brave new world. the overall shape evokes a keyhole, outlined in a  glow of blue against rich black.

The entry to a new world and your ability to create it, is in giving all that you are a place, Devil and Empress and Fool. Forget none of their lessons. Give up none of your power. Within your World, all of them come together and create a whole more than the sum of any amount of parts. More than a balance, more than integration like some locking together of pieces, when you are all, you are on another scale entirely.”

My Take

I didn’t initially intend – tonight – to choose another set of cards to help us answer those questions that arose spontaneously. Hence the hour has grown late.

But it bears noticing that the repetition of these cards together is certainly synchronistic.The approaching anniversary of the insurrection feels essential to observe as well. And the fact that we just entered into the year of the mid-term elections feels significant too.

We have to figure out a way to come together.

Here’s to 2022.

(T+24)

Don’t Look Up – ND #23

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Photo: L. Weikel

Don’t Look Up

We just finished watching Don’t Look Up on Netflix.  I’m still digesting it.

It’s not as if it’s a complicated plot or sophisticated premise. No, what I’m still digesting is how uncomfortable it made me feel. At least, discomfort was an initial feeling I experienced as the movie unfolded.

I had a rough idea of the plot of the movie, so the likenesses drawn to recent infamous figures were unsurprising. But the overall impact of that part of the satire was uncomfortable. (Satire doing its job, I guess.) It rang too true. In some ways, at least at first, it almost felt like a documentary.

Futility

What’s most disturbing is the inanity of society and the garbage that’s fed to us via so many outlets. While we know many people devote way too much time to staring at their screens, it’s still hard to look at that screen time being depicted as the pathetic mind-mushing tool that it is. And the vapid television programs! Oh my goodness, I just wanted to scream.

Hmm. Re-reading that last paragraph, I’m loathe to use the word ‘devote’ in the second sentence, given the sacredness with which I approach the concept of devotion. And yet I think it should remain precisely because, in so many ways, people are bastardizing the concept of devotion and applying it to objects or activities that actually disconnect them from all that is sacred or precious.

Yet again, the topsy-turvy, inside out reality we currently live in was on display. How do we counter craven power-seeking and money grubbing?

Photo: L. Weikel

Big Issues

This movie’s catastrophic event comes from outside of us – at the edge of our solar system, to be precise. But the analogies to the myriad big issues we have screaming for our attention (to just LOOK AT them, perhaps, and choose NOT to look away?) of our own making were obvious.

It’s unsettling to contemplate the reality of potentially losing everything we have here on Earth. Yet for me I think what’s most maddening is that we still have the ability to make some huge course corrections – but continue to fiddle around the edges.

I truly believe we still have time. But does it fit into our electoral schedule? I don’t know. The sense of urgency we should all feel about voting rights (here in the U.S.) bears directly upon the urgency demanded by climate change. We’re playing with fire right now. We can’t let those beholden to the (literal) dinosaur-based energy paradigm delay and obfuscate one more day. The tears rolling down my cheeks at the end of the movie were real, as was my desire to transmute my discomfort and sense of futility into action.

I believe the coming year has all the makings of seismic shifts in attitude and strategies. The sighted must take the wheel before it’s too late. Watch* and see if you know what I mean.

Feeling Passionate – Photo: K. Weikel

*and don’t miss the Tuvan shaman at the end of the movie, either.

(T+23)

Bushed – ND #22

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Six of Wands – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Bushed

I’m feeling a tad bushed tonight. I think it may be a combination of simply running out of energy as we approach the end of the year and the consequences of yearning to give myself time and space to reflect on what’s next but always finding something else to be more important.

And of course it isn’t more important. But if I truly believe that, then I need to walk my talk.

Grease the Wheel

Perhaps some of you are in the same boat. You want to maybe pick some cards and take a look at the themes that will be playing out in your life, but on the other hand, you’re just not making the time.

So this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to choose a card from The Tarot of the Crone while holding the question in my mind, “What do I (we?) need to face in order to move forward?” Seems like a provocative question that might serve to get us thinking…

Six of Wands/Shadow of Wands

The main card I chose was the Six of Wands, which is described by the creator of the deck, Ellen Lorenzi-Prince as follows:

Six of Wands – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Six of Wands ~ Radiance

“I found the Heart/The Source and the Sun

Closer within than without

A bright and exotic six-petal flower opens to reveal a black hooded shape, the inner crone, the source of its unfolding. Six surrounding plants turn to the flower, as if to the sun. The expression of the power of fire in the harmony and awareness of the Six indicates recognition and rewards arising organically. Others respond naturally to you when you radiate from the center of your being the person you truly are. In everyday life, in everyday ways. You know now that being whole and real, in touch with your own source, is what it takes to create beauty that enriches the world.”

The Foundation (Underneath) Card was the Shadow of Wands:

Shadow of Wands – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Shadow of Wands ~ Wasteland

“My power is blown/My strength has faltered/And my influence/is burnt to ash

Only the indestructible/Remains

In the Wasteland, a barren, burnt out land and a vague, closed face are all that remains of a Magician who once created living worlds. Shadows are a harsh reality check. Power can be destructive and you can get caught up in that part of it. In the Wands, Spirit has become deadened, withdrawn. Maybe the effort was too much; maybe the goal was impossible; maybe the passion was too personal. Now effort, goal and passion are gone. Forgotten were body, heart and mind in your endeavor you lost their balance and support. Your bridges are burned. You are left with yourself, so take a good look at what survives. And rest. Until you do, the only place to go in the Wasteland is deeper.

My Take

I relate far more to the bottom card than the top, at least in this moment. Granted, I admitted at the beginning that I’m tired, and weariness can certainly color one’s perceptions of self and world.

Every once in a while I feel glimmers of the top card. My sense is that in order to get to the Six, it is essential to heed the warning of the Shadow of Wands. For me, I must stop running around and, instead, allow myself to bring my life back into balance of body, heart, and mind. When I do that, and allow myself to go within, I will emerge much more in touch with my inner crone.

I think I know what I want to do tomorrow.

(T+21)

Technology – ND #21

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Photo: Macrumors.com

Technology

Technology. Ugh. Talk about having a love/hate relationship with something. Ever since Karl and I bought one of the first Macintoshes for Christmas back in 1984 (at a department store called Hess’s!), I’ve been fascinated by the possibilities.

I’ll always remember the anticipation we felt taking it out of its box and setting it up in our first apartment here in Pennsylvania. We moved back to Pennsylvania after living in New York for three years while I attended law school. Karl was a toddler and Karl and I felt like we were making a visionary investment in his future by purchasing that machine.

Only just graduating from law school a year earlier, I had typed every paper I submitted both in undergrad and law school on an electric typewriter. I kept handwritten track of all our finances in a 10” x 13” grid-lined notebook. So the prospect of inputting and organizing all our finances on the computer boggled my mind. The concept of writing letters, papers, memoranda, briefs – heck, writing anything – and being able to edit and delete without Wite-Out® or Liquid Paper®(which were still pretty revolutionary in their own right) seemed like science fiction. But here it was: a grayish plastic cube sitting on a desk in our living room.

We watched the now legendary Apple commercial “1984” and felt like we were part of a movement that would break the future wide open. I literally fantasized over all the things I thought we’d be able to do with that Macintosh.

Afraid to Break It

I have to laugh at my dreams now. To say that I was disappointed in that first Macintosh is an understatement. Quicken®didn’t become a part of my reality for probably another decade. And by that time we’d moved to PCs because we could get a wider selection of better games for the kids and word processing programs for me (as well as the aforementioned Quicken®).

Through it all, though, I was so afraid I’d ‘break’ it. Or heaven forbid, I’d touch a key or engage in a function that would delete everything. It didn’t take long for our sons to zoom past us at light speed in their comfort level with this ever-evolving technology.

Of course, that was the whole point of why we’d invested in that very first Macintosh. And why we found ourselves upgrading to the latest and greatest amazingness every year or two. The technology changed so quickly, and the software became so sophisticated, we simply had to get machines with more power and memory if we were going to successfully greet the future.

One Foot In, One Foot Out

All of this is forefront in my mind because I gave a presentation today in the I AM Symposium and used a new desktop computer. I thought I’d figured out ahead of time how to ‘go live’ on Facebook, which was ironic, since I’ve become fairly comfortable with Zoom. How different could they be, I thought? Ha. (Never challenge worse. Where have I heard that before?) When a notice suddenly popped up moments before I was to start indicating that my ‘frames per second’ were too slow, I wanted to run away.

Luckily, Sage was close by and he messed around with it. (Truth be told, I don’t think he did anything to it that I hadn’t tried – but it was infinitely reassuring that he was there as my tech support.) The ‘show went on,’ and I eventually regained my footing. But it was a tough start.

And so it is, I have a beauty of a new computer – the first desktop we’ve had in the house in probably a decade. I’m excited by the power and speed it has – and the possibilities, again, feel limitless. It also feels like another ‘coming full circle.’ I remember seeing Karl (son) sitting at our last desktop, right where this one is situated, the last time he was home. That’s when he put a ton of his favorite songs on my iPod (which are now on my iPhone) – and through which he still communicates with me today.

Technology. I love it and hate it at the same time.

(T+21)

Never Challenge Worse – ND #20

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Trouble on the Horizon? – Photo: L. Weikel

Never Challenge Worse

Here we are, living the last week of 2021. If nothing else, I trust this year has been an object lesson in the truth of the adage: “never challenge worse.” Last year at this time, I cringed every time I saw someone declare how 2021 would haveto be better than the abysmal year we’d just experienced. And it didn’t take long for everything to fall apart to an even greater degree than it had before.

Even the dramatic inroads that were made vis-à-vis vaccine availability and the possibility that opened up to get the virus under control seemed promising – at first. But alas, we know how things unfolded in that area. I don’t need to hash and rehash here.

The same goes for our political leadership. We thought we dodged a bullet. And undoubtedly we did. But now it seems we’re realizing we better hope we’re capable of dodging a bazooka. Or maybe a grenade launcher. Or heaven forbid – a nuke. Because the bullet we dodged was, viewed with a longer-range lens, probably the least of our worries.

Can’t Close Our Eyes

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? We keep thinking, “It can’t get any worse.” And yet it does.

What do you remember thinking and feeling as you sat before your television or computer screen on January 6th? I can tell you what I wrote about that night – fresh from the experience. This is my post from that night.

Even more surprising to me? I just searched my posts with the key word insurrection and discovered 26 entries. But even more chilling is my first mention of insurrection: the warning I wrote the night of September 21, 2020. I’m equally surprised by my entry the evening of January 3, 2021. And wow – I called it on the evening of January 6th.

I’m not providing these links as proof that I’ve got some super cool oracular powers. Far from it! If you read the posts, you’ll see I actually just stated what was right before our eyes the whole time. And if I could see it, we all could see it. But our eyes seemed to be firmly slammed shut. I dare say the Capitol Police felt unheard and unseen.

Calm Before the Storm

I don’t want to be an alarmist. Indeed, I seek peace. I yearn for justice and equality. I do my best to promote communication and connection. But I’m feeling a sense of foreboding. This week feels like the calm before the storm.

My worry – as is being conveyed in other outlets; I don’t claim to be a singular sage – is the lack of accountability. The fact that 51 weeks have gone by with no major players or instigators being indicted is exponentially emboldening the insurrectionists. We cannot let this stand without imperiling everything we rely upon and hold dear in this country.

And I don’t think it will simply play out, lah-dee-dah, and disappear into the memory hole. No. I suspect within the very near future we’re going to see other additional direct attempts to subvert our democracy. Or perhaps we’ll finally see some well-investigated and highly documented indictments (and then convictions, if our system works at all).

Either way, I’m not betting 2022 is going to be a ‘relief.’ It may, however, bring relief. If we can manage to keep our republic.

(T+20)

High Hopes – ND #19

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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

High Hopes

I always have high hopes heading into the last two weeks of the year. No matter what, I always look upon this time of year as my cherished opportunity to find a cozy spot in the house and just READ.

Mostly, I let myself read after I’ve posted for the evening. Believe me, I don’t get very far, since I usually fall asleep within about five minutes. But see, between Christmas and New Years each year, I actually bring my book downstairs! It’s allowed to mingle outside the bedroom, which increases its potential for being picked up and read rather significantly.

The fiction I’m reading at the moment is The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. It’s the first in a trilogy, which means if I love the writing, I can look forward to months of delicious anticipation each night. So far so good.

Sunset 26 Dec 2021 – Photo: L. Weikel

Slightly Ragged Start

I have to admit that my experience of the book literally got off to a slightly ragged start. If you take a look at the photo of the book, above, you’ll see that the puppies discovered the joys of paperbacks a few weeks back. Luckily, I discovered their transgression before any words were harmed in the process.

Just in the past night or so, in spite of the ridiculously late hour I found myself sliding between the sheets and snagging a few minutes with my book, I actually managed to read enough to finally feel ‘hooked.’ Now I’m finding the book is calling to me – enticing me to ‘write already’ so I can return to the world so persuasively created by N. K. Jemisin.

Besides Reading

Besides the allure of spending unrestricted time immersing myself in another world, I’m also looking forward to breaking in a new tarot deck. It’s always fun to do a spread for the coming year, choosing a card for each month, just to get a sense of what that month might hold.

But first – during the days just after Christmas especially – it’s fascinating to go back to my notes and reflect upon the cards I chose last year. I’m finding my sense of time has been altered significantly by the pandemic. Nothing feels the same. Time doesn’t flow in the same way it used to. Not that this is a bad thing; it’s just vastly different in some ways. And I’m wondering if time will continue to feel this abstract and obtuse from here on out.

Wintry Mix

We’re supposed to get a ‘wintry mix’ of weather tomorrow. All the more reason to stay home and hunker down. I’ll watch the I AM Symposium, play some games, read some of my book – and maybe even write a little something myself.

I hope you’re giving yourself permission to do some of your favorite things this week too.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T+19)

Twisting Turning and Folding In – ND #18

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All that wrapping paper was exhausting – Photo: L. Weikel

What’s going on? Am I simply noticing the effects of growing older? Or is time actually twisting, turning, and folding in on itself?

While this may sound facetious, I’m asking this question in all seriousness.

I literally just sat here on the couch for a good hour, basking in the multi-colored glow of our Christmas tree, staring off into space. I can barely articulate what I was thinking about. Past, present, future perhaps? Possibly.

Mostly past and present, I suppose.

Lately, when I think back on Christmases past, they feel more like snippets from different lives. And to be honest, I never thought they’d feel so foreign.

Pacha’s First Christmas – Photo: L. Weikel

More to Come

I’ve caught myself thinking about this a lot lately. I’m starting to conclude that it’s a natural progression that happens to almost everyone – like aging – even though we think it will never happen to our family. In some ways, I suppose, it’s probably essential to our survival as a species. Siblings head off in different directions, each spinning their own webs of stories, memories, and interconnections.

Photos viewed decades later conjure feelings that could easily have been felt yesterday, or as freshly generated as at this very moment. Others jar our concept of ourselves and screech us to a halt in our tracks. “How could I have thought what I remember so vividly ‘knowing’ back then?” and the perennial favorite, “What was I thinking?”

It’s possible I’ll be sharing more of these musings. Santa brought a VCR converter cassette that will allow us to watch the ‘family movies’ we created over the past 30 years. How the first converter managed to get lost is a mystery. But it’s barely been missed, as the reality is that we’re not a family known to gather ’round and watch home movies – a curious fact, when you look at all the tapes we’ve amassed.

30 Years and Counting

Karl and I sprung for one of the newest video cameras available back in the day. It was ‘the’ family gift for Christmas 1991, to be precise. The sad thing about that, for me, is that my mother died that previous August – so we never got the chance to record her voice and image on video. As a result, Sage has never heard my mother’s voice or her laugh. That grieves me.

I imagine it’ll be fun and poignant watching some of these videos. Painful, too – since so many of the videos will feature Karl, of course, being our eldest.

Our memories of holidays and the people we were so long ago morph over the years. So I imagine it’s going to be a bit weird now, especially since we haven’t been priming ourselves for these memories by watching the videos year after year.

They’ll probably feel a bit like blasts out of left field, even though we’re anticipating them.

We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we’ll keep on creating new memories. That’s what we do, right? Most of these, though, will be recorded on our phones. I wonder: will we (or our kids? or our kids’ kids?) be inclined to look back on them even less frequently?

(T+18)

Silent Night – ND #17

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Stockings Hung With Care – Photo: L. Weikel

Silent Night

I’m feeling rather quiet at the moment. Lucky for me, due to the puppies needing to go out before bedding down for the evening, only moments ago I was standing underneath the night sky searching for stars. It was the Christmas Eve night sky, although technically it’s Christmas Day. And all I could comprehend in those moments was how silent the night was, which of course made me smile. Silent night.

As I stood outside tonight I could feel a similar magic to that of the Winter Solstice, which is as it should be, since there is a kinship between the two. Both celebrate the arrival (or return) of the Light, one literally and the other metaphorically.

Ah, Magic

I wish I could bring some magic to our circumstances right now. We need an infusion of light again. I’ve encountered so many people lately whose internal batteries are running low. And these are the people who are usually the buoys for others.

It’s never a good thing to have the optimists lose hope.

There is, of course, something to be said for the awe that can completely overtake our loss of hope when we look up. When we look up, our physical eyes can see the potential limitlessness of our existence. We realize there is so much more than the day-to-day worries that so often ensnare us. And even if we’re not sure what our next move is, when we look up (and especially when we can see the stars) it’s not hard to find the courage to trust the Universe to provide.

That’s magic.

Works of art from Mongolia – Photo: L. Weikel

The Next Few Days

Over the next few days, I’m going to be looking for the magic.  And even as I write that sentence, I have to smile. Just look at the photo of the stockings hung on our mantelpiece this evening. They’re from Mongolia. Handmade by a collective of young people learning to make a living through honoring the skills cultivated in their culture over millennia, it feels like a miracle that I bought them there myself.

Who am I to have been lucky enough to experience life – if ever so briefly – on the Mongolian steppe? And what a blessing is it to have these tangible and exquisitely crafted reminders hanging on our mantel?

That, too, is magic.

Wishes

I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday, filled most importantly with love, warmth, connection, peace, and good health.

Don’t be afraid to look for the magic. And I’m saying this especially to those of you who are losing hope or finding yourself feeling sad or lonely. If you ask for some magic, it will come.

Believe.

(T+17)

Be-Bopping Around – ND #16

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Escher Pups, Be-Bopping Around – Photo: L. Weikel

Be-Bopping Around

Depending upon how organized you are, when you read this post you may or may not have ahead of you at least another half day’s worth of be-bopping around to pick up last minute meal fixin’s or find that final phantom gift that just refuses to ‘click’ into place. Others of you will probably be engaging in the extravaganza of final wrapping. It’s even possible some will be baking or similarly engaged. I’m happy to encourage you to think I’ll be draped beside the fireplace reading a book and sipping a cup of rum-laced nog.

Yeah. I’m sure none of you fell for that fantasy. I’ll tell you what, though. Just re-reading it made me chuckle at the picture it painted in my head. It might even qualify as Crone Porn. Although, come to think of it, it’s probably more a form of Mother-of-Four-Under-the-age-of-10 Porn.

When I think back to my 30s and 40s, I don’t know how I managed to stay upright during the six week sprint from Thanksgiving through New Years. And now with everything more heightened and intense – and I do mean everything – I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to be a parent.

I just hope by 3:00 p.m. or so tomorrow everyone will be very close to unplugging from it all.

OK, by 5:00, then. Man, you drive a hard bargain.

It’s a Test

To determine whether or not you’re stretched too thin and desperately need to break away from all the pressures and expectations, you need to look carefully at the puppy photo at the top of this post. What do you see? Are you sure?

I call this my Escher-Puppies. It’s a bit mind-twisty. Where does one begin and another end?

 

The Rehabilitation

As a person who feels responsible for maintaining a healthy connection with and between all of you, I cannot in good conscience leave you with the Escher Pups as your final image for the day. Thus I bestow upon you the great gobs of cuteness below.

If you’re feeling uptight or stressed out, look at this photo. Now imagine a Christmas-themed photo and maybe you’ll dream tomorrow’s post into being. (No, I did NOT take them to see Santa. I barely did that with my kids. There’s no way I’d do that to my pups.)

And besides, we all know and admit we’re suckers for puppy pictures. It’s the least I could do for all you holiday warriors.

P.S.: Tonight/tomorrow is our final exact Saturn square Uranus aspect. Woohoo! Let’s sit back and watch what happens.

Great Gobs of Cuteness – Photo: L. Weikel

(T+16)

Squirrels – ND #15

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I’m Too Sexy – Photo: L. Weikel

Even the squirrels are getting abusive.

Just yesterday, we encountered this little guy stuffing his face with hickory nuts. It was obvious that he fancied himself quite the representative of his species, because he was all about openly ingesting his nuts before young and old.

Indeed, he confided to us that he occasionally will aim a well-balanced hickory at a passing car. He did admit, in addition, that in some cases will make do with a black walnut, but he tends to shy away from them because they stain his claws.

As soon as we started scrabbling harder into his background, the more perturbed he became.

Ugh! – Photo: L. Weikel

Agitation

Our agitated situation only escalated when the squirrel suddenly felt a wave of paranoia sweep over him. He leapt to face me, his mouth full of nutmeat and outrage. “I WILL NOT tolerate this outrage! I hate Main Street – and I’m not going there. Indeed, I’m not going to sit anywhere without knowing my vote for favorite nut will be counted in a free and fair election.”

Honestly, I have no idea what he was talking about. It all sounded like gibberish to me. Luckily, Karl speaks squirrel, as it is a dialect of Google. He explained the tenterhooks upon which the squirrel was being examined. It didn’t sound easy or pleasant. Perhaps it was less paranoia and more brainwash.

The language on this one! – Photo: L. Weikel

Finally

In the end, Squirrel managed to get himself to a vantage point where he knew he could discern the hazards and proceed with his harvesting with impunity. Indeed, he was so confident of his abilities to see into the future and determine the vulnerabilities of those who’d been entrusted to our care, that I barely scratched the surface of who he is.

Realizing the power of his vantage point, Squirrel’s attitude expanded and the saga devolved. Suddenly, Squirrel became cruel and abusive. “Your mother was a hamster!” he screeched through gritted teeth.

I sighed. There was no reasoning with this creature. He’d gathered his beliefs, like nuts, by the score. And now he refused to manifest any number of accomplishments to which he was capable.

Turns out, his aim with both armaments and epithets was remarkably accurate.

(T+15)