I watch the faces that slowly drive by and while I try to read their eyes and guess the weight of happiness that would show on some fictional scale, a squirrel flashes up a tree and I think, now there’s a simple life. The instant reaction to confusion or danger. The safest instinct – climb! Where we seem to freeze unsure if we should leave our heart where we left it, buried in a safe place, or grab it and go, so we quake and quiver because of love, loneliness, fear and a dozen other considerations.
The Giant appears before i put a bow on my thoughts. I pull out the shopping list and step into my world of food gathering and nut hunting with dozens of others that scurry about without danger. Also, our nuts don’t need husking and there’s no confusion about how much I can pack in my mouth because of expandable bags and as I leave the store I pass the same squirrel digging in the dirt. I open a jar of almonds and toss one. He stuffs it in his mouth and I lure him closer with the next three I throw his way.
I finally leave him with a mouth fully-packed and conclude two things: Luck sure seems to be something that every creature knows instinctively. Never to run from it but follow it, play it for all it’s worth. It’s the one exception to all the hard and fast rules of danger and confusion.
The other is happiness: How is it that a squirrel can smile with his eyes
while the cheeks are ready to burst.