I’m sitting on my screened-in porch watching the birdfeeder pole in the backyard. There is a squirrel on the ground at the base. He desperately wants to find a way up the pole to the birdseed. The easiest way would be to simply climb the pole, which he tries, only to be frustrated by a baffle. He climbs a nearby tree and crawls out on to a limb to see if he can jump to the pole. It’s a little too far. He gets up on his hind legs and leans on the pole, trying to get it to shake so that the feeder will fall to the ground, but the pole is grounded too deeply to waver.
I don’t want him to get into the birdseed, but I can’t help but admire his determination. He’s still out there, plotting his next move. He’s not whining and complaining about his problems. He’s doing something about them. He’s trying stuff. All kinds of stuff. When he fails, he just keeps trying.
We could learn a lot from a squirrel.