I saw it long before it happened

Not the squirrel from my story

 Earlier this summer, at least a month ago, I was riding my scooter into work as usual. I happened to notice the long tree branches arching over this section of the highway and imagined what would happen if squirrels were running along those branches and fell off. Now, squirrels are very sure-footed but things like high winds or other squirrels attacking or chasing them could cause them to lose their footing. So, I had this vision of a squirrel falling off a branch and landing in my lap. What a scene it was as the squirrel panicked and tried to scramble away from me. I imagined that I would try to stop so it could jump off and get safely away.

The more I thought about it, the funnier it seemed. If I'd been in an area where other people were standing by the side of the road, they would have thought it pretty strange that the guy on the scooter was laughing so hard. "What is he laughing at?" they'd probably think. "Should we call someone?"

A few days ago, I was on my scooter riding on another road where long tree branches extend over the road. I first saw a bunch of leaves fall to the road. As I looked up to see if more debris was going to fall, more fell on the road ahead of me. But it wasn't more leaves. It was a squirrel. He had fallen on the road about 15 feet ahead of me and it looked a little stunned. After a second of confusion or catching it's breath, it got its bearings and ran off the road with a lot of scrambling sounds on the pavement.

I don't know what caused this squirrel to fall but there was no wind. So, I'm assuming that another squirrel had been chasing this one. Or may it was evading a hawk. I'll never know but it made me laugh again. Once again I was lucky that no one was around to consider me crazy. Isn't it strange that I would imagine a similar episode a month earlier?

Something I realized later was that my reflexes are a lot better in my daydreams than they are in reality. In this case, I never even slowed down or swerved. Fortunately, the squirrel was not close enough that I would have hurt it. It's another lesson to be looking ahead for problems all the time.

Did I help or make it worse?

I was reading another blog today where the writer was wondering about where we get our ideas about what are good pills and supplements to take for our health. It made me think about my mother and I wrote this comment:

My mother lived alone until she broke her hip when she was 89. So, she came to live near us where we took care of organizing her pills (and other things). All her life, Mom complained that after she read the pills' side effects inserts, she found she was having those problems and would insist the doctor change the prescription. Then she'd read the new inserts and see those symptoms. So, after she moved here and we took over that part of her care, we didn't let her read the side effects inserts. Sadly, Mom died at 91 - about a year and a half after moving here and our taking over her care. Maybe having imagined illnesses was better than getting the real thing.

If you've been involved in the care of a loved one who died, you cannot help but feel guilty. "If I'd just been more understanding," or, "Why did I insist on that course of care?" are things I continue to worry about to this day. I think everyone goes through it but it still hurts. I still miss Mom terribly and wish I could have known what to do differently. But God has his own plan for our life and nothing we can do will add a second to it. I keep telling myself.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,

but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21 New International Version

What did I do wrong?

As I was riding my scooter home from work the other night, I stopped behind a car at a busy intersection. I didn't have to worry about the traffic yet because the car in front of me would have to pull onto the road first. As we waited, the guy (who was alone in his car) gave me the finger! Now, if it had been a fleeting gesture, I might have thought I had imagined it. But no - he gave it to me long and clear. What had I done to antagonize this guy?

Was I too close? Had I steered my scooter back forth and shined my headlight in a threatening manner? I couldn't imagine what I had done. He was pretty far ahead of me and I know I had not cut in front of him unless it had happened earlier in the trip. Was he at the last intersection with the red light? Had I crowded him there? Did I remind him of someone he had an argument with or did we have an argument in the past? I didn't recognize his car. I couldn't see him clearly in the rear view mirror but from what I could see, I didn't recognize him.

Should I ride up beside him and ask him what the problem was? Should I be mad or apologetic? Should I say anything at all? He might have a gun or know powerful people or open his door fast and hit me with it.

All of this flashed through my mind in a few seconds and then I noticed something (as he continued to give me the finger) - his sun roof was moving. He was just adjusting his sunroof with the control on on the roof and he was using his finger to push the buttons. Of course!

So, to answer the question in the subject of this post - What I had done wrong was to jump to conclusions. And this was a good reminder to me to think before I act. I may have made him laugh if I had confronted him. Or I could have started something terrible.



The picture here is not from that day but it might help you imagine what I saw and what I thought I saw. Think about what this would look like from behind and not being able to see it clearly from about 15 feet away.