Off My Rocker?

I’m beginning to think there might be something wrong with me. I have started using my grandkid’s cute stuffed animal you see in the picture above as a sleep aid. It’s so soft and pliable and makes a great neck support. Not to mention it’s just really cute.

Why I think I might be a little off, is that in my mind, this furry guy gets more real each day. Yesterday, when I woke up and he was on the floor, I had a twinge of sadness thinking that I must have inadvertently hurled him overboard. He just looks and “acts” so real. The other day, when I threw him on the bed, he landed like he is in the picture. Now tell me that doesn’t look like a real person.

I told you; I need help.

There are a few other strange things that have happened to me lately. I am finding it harder and harder to kill bugs, I make excuses for the gophers who are digging up our sidewalk pavers, and I let a spider take up residence in an outdoor decorative lantern until it had filled the whole thing with an elaborate web.

I blame this newfound, deep sense of connection to nature on experiences I have had in nature in the last few years and more recently on the reading I have been doing on humanity’s innate connection to God, to each other, and to nature. That new awareness has taken root in me and I can’t shake it. Not that I want to shake it.

I find comfort and happiness knowing that God is love and that love resides in each one of us. That love was put there to share with each other and with all of creation. What a wonderful world it would be if that love showed up more often and everywhere.

I hope you will take the time to read about our October mini-retreat at Firstfruits. The two offerings for our first mini-retreat focus on this topic of our connectedness and the power within us to use that connectedness to make some real changes for good. Be sure to check it out.

Just to clarify a few things. I do kill mosquitos and bees when the situation warrants it. I guess my love hasn’t extended to them yet. And I know this connection to nature doesn’t really explain my tendency to assign human characteristics to stuffed animals. That’s a topic for another blog and another therapy session.

Go hug a tree…or a human.

Joan