There are small joys as well as big ones in all of Creation. Outside my patio door there is a red oak that I was able to identify now that it bore acorns. They are beautiful nuts, and last year I was afraid they were going to waste. But this year was different.
One morning I saw a gray squirrel eating an acorn, shelling it while perched on the lowest branch of the tree. The harvest was so bountiful, lying at the base of the tree, that he had to take only a few hops from the base to get another one. Then I saw the other two.
It was Oktoberfest for all of them! They were darting all around, acorns in jaws, and resting on nearby branches to eat them. Ecstasy had arrived in the animal kingdom. All this while Loretta, Paula, Ilana, Freddy and I celebrated Loretta’s birthday.
Civilization 