Chipmunk Cheeks—Never Giving Up

While writing for this blog, I often see a small brown flash in the corner of my right eye as a chipmunk—cheeks full of acorns—dashes across the top step outside my back door. Sometimes it will sit there for a while on its haunches, looking around, totally oblivious to my presence. We regularly share a space on this planet, only a few feet apart. It’s one of the small pleasures of working at home.

My chipmunk friend, like millions of others, is preparing for the winter. Even I have begun my preparations for colder weather by extracting my long-sleeved shirts and sweaters from a cedar-lined storage box in my closet.

As the seasons come and go, we all make small and large adjustments to our lives. As jobs come and go, we move on too. Sometimes the effort and changes such transitions require are large, but taking each step One Tomato at a Time (so to speak), we get closer to where we want to be.

My friend the chipmunk makes countless trips to transport a few acorns from their source to a hiding spot, never giving up because the task is too large.

I think there is a lot we can learn from chipmunks.