Trust, Squirrels, and Befriending Your Emotions

On hope

“What if the best is yet to come?” caterpillar asked.

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Mobile: Trust Me (36” x 22”)

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Thoughts while making

I don’t know their names.

I just call them friends.

“Hi friend,” I say as I walk to my backyard studio.

Most often it’s a squirrel on the fence. Or a crow in the tree. Sometimes a finch.

In the middle of the night, my backyard motion light turns on and shines into my bedroom.

At these times, it’s an opossum or a raccoon, looking for things in the grass, just under the surface.

I say hi through the window.

But I say it quietly, so I can keep watching them.

I don’t think they hear me.

Usually, I also say, “It’s okay.”

As in: “Hi friend. It’s okay.”

Like I’m saying, “You’re safe with me.”

I try to say it in a soft, comforting voice.

I wonder if they notice? If it matters?

It does to me.

Often, they scurry or fly away all the same.

Last night, I met a spider.

She was in my bathtub.

And she was big.

I had just turned on the water when I saw her, legs a blur as she was trying to get away.

“How did you get in there?”

“Are you stuck?”

“Can I help you?”

I let her climb up on a sheet of toilet paper.

It was cold outside, so I placed her on the couch in the back room.

“Here, friend,” I said, “this should be comfy.”

It made me laugh.

The other night my older brother was here.

Another spider was walking across the floor.

My brother stood up. And stepped on her.

Choices matter. A lot.

Offering yourself as friend, as a place of trust, matters.

And that begins by offering this to yourself.

This simple act of self-love is the guarantor that the best is truly yet to come.

My spider friend was gone this a.m.

And you better believe I checked my slippers twice before putting them on.

What emotion can you befriend today – offering it and yourself safety above all else?

For me, it’s fear; so I say: “Hi my friend, fear. It’s okay.”