I trudged through the snow yesterday to refill the bird feeders. The chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers have gone through about 60 pounds of sunflower seeds since the start of the winter.

The squirrels, prevented from reaching the feeders thanks to my clever baffle device, stake out the ground beneath. When I come to do my refill, they scurry away and watch me warily.

Once the snow gets deep enough each year, the squirrels dig a labyrinth into which they’d scamper, appearing above snow again somewhere completely different.

Yesterday’s squirrel watched me from a tunnel entrance as I scooped the seeds, venturing out then retreating back in.

I could see the conflict going through its fuzzy head: a nice, warm tunnel…. but seeds!

Home is where it’s safe and comfortable. It’s where we know what’s what. Where everything feels right because we know we’re where we need to be in a benevolent world.

There are times when we venture out and are faced with stress, even alienation. There are times when we’re overwhelmed, disconnected… or just plain off.

At those times, we think the world is full of fear and we wonder how home could have deserted us. We’re angry because the warm duvet has gone, we’re shivering and we don’t know why.

Except home never did go away. It was always there. We just forgot.

And when, eventually, we remember, we laugh.

It’s as if our sense of wellbeing, our feeling of OKness, our home is playing a game of peekaboo.

Ha! I forgot about home but here it is again!

Everything’s fine!

What a hilarious joke!