Don't swear at the squirrels

Don’t swear at the squirrel, don’t damn the deer, for though they may be slow they have as much right to be here as you.

When you least expect, when you think you have the road to yourself, nature rises up to surprise you. I had a corner near where I used to live which seemed to sprout squirrels – or at least one who every so often decided to dare me to miss him. He seemed to wait for me and rush out at the last moment. I always managed to take evasive action to miss him, but it spooked me none the less

Once when coming down a mountain ridge in California I saw a deer standing by the road, and willed it to stand still, since I didn’t want to hit it, but had a steep rise on one side of the road and a sharp dropoff on the  other side. I later saw a deer dash out to cross the road up over on the Olympic Peninsula and get hit because a car couldn’t stop in time.

We have these open roads fit for cars and trucks and we are content to just plug along obliviously. But nature’s creatures are all around and need to cross. Let’s be mindful of how we drive. There are also plenty of bikes, tractors, or just slow cars that share the road, and we need to be mindful and considerate of their right to be there.

It’s like that in life, not just in driving. We may have it easy uncomplicated, never wanting for the basic necessities of life, never hassled for the way we look, where we were born, how we   worship, or who we love. We have no impediments in our history or family that cause us difficulty or even pause. But we don’t inhabit this world alone. There are many going down that road of life that struggle to get by, that can’t zoom along, and they have the same right as us to drive this road of life.



It’s like the coworker I once knew who was so upset by “slow” drivers that he described his entry to the freeway once as “driving fast and close down the entrance ramp while blaring his horn full blast to get the guy in front of him to get  out of the way”. How rude. I was glad not to be in front of him that day, but I prayed for all those who had been and would be.

So do the equivalent of social distancing in your car and your life – give space to those who need it. And if you come across a group of    geese crossing the road, stop and let them pass. You’ll get to your destination soon enough.