The Value of a Good Hair Job

A wise person once said to me “Grown ups go for hair cuts and go to the dentist.” I’ve been known to dodge both responsibilities quite effectively, and with this winter being as busy and wintery as it has been, avoiding the hair cut has been easy. (We won’t discuss the dentist bit here!! Let’s save that for another post).

So spring is springing now, and my hair is badly in need of a cut, and I’ve been thinking about it and duly inspired by the squirrels who are busily out and chattering away. Squirrels, in my humble opinion, being rats with good hair jobs.

Squirrels are, to me, the living evidence that if you have a good hair job, you can be a disease and pestilence bearing creature who will be given treats and much positive attention and thought of as cute. Who wouldn’t want a deal like that?

Today, I came home after being out for a few hours. I’d left bird feeders out on the deck, and have taken to checking the deck before I come inside, to see whether the feeders are still up - a sure sign that the bears have not yet gotten up the deck yet! When I rounded the corner, there on the deck railing was a squirrel who turned, glared at me, and promptly began a-cursing, letting me know in no uncertain terms that it was his deck, his planet, his universe.

I tell you, the confidence that comes with a good hair job.

“Don’t you be hollering at me like you own the whole place”, I said, “You’re just a dolled up rat.”

And didn’t he just chatter back at me. I think he may have been saying “You might benefit from a bit of dolling up yourself lady! Have you seen what your hair looks like today??”

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of my move to Tobermory - the land of bears and flying squirrels, wolves and coyotes, foxes and turkeys, porcupines and fishers, grouse and flickers. I’m learning the names of the creatures as I go :)

I feel like maybe I am settling in, and it is a good feeling. Today, a dear friend helped me to bring home some planter boxes. I’m looking forward to getting some vegetables going (so I have more cause for conversation with squirrels, who will appropriate the produce and challenge my notions of ownership). I’m learning to engage differently with the challenges.

I am tired, after a long winter, an ice storm, a busy and deeply thought-provoking Lent. I am thankful we are in the empty tomb season, in the green bud season, in the baby bear season. I am thankful for the incredible work of witness that is happening all around me in so many ways through so many people. I am thankful for the prayer upholding so many, myself included, as we keep putting one foot before the other, in faith.

I am thankful for hopefulness, and plucky squirrels in the midst of a chaos-filled world, where so many are finding it challenging to change their focus from despair to delight. I am thankful for the squirrel’s reminder to me that it is his world as much as it is mine.

I am tired, but a kind of peace is settling around me, within me, throughout me. Maybe I will take the squirrel’s advice, and go get a “hair cups” - as one of the dearest ones in my life used to call it.

Because sometimes, being a grown up is worth embracing, and sometimes a good hair job draws forth something courageous and plucky out of something that otherwise wouldn’t be recognized as lovely at all!

Thanks be to the conversation with the squirrel today, and thanks be to GOD!

---

Photo by Sandi Mager on Unsplash