God's little birthday squirrel

My time in Fort Worth has had its ups and downs, sometimes I've thought, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, and sometimes I've thought, I should've gone to Thailand, or anywhere else. Usually I think this on days, like today, when I'm sorting through piles and piles of background checks, reference checks, check requests....checks, copies, emails, checks....at least in Tanzania the electricity would go out, or we'd run out of paper or the Internet wouldn't work, but no such luck in fort worth, Texas.

Anyway, on Saturday evening I decided to go for a little run at TCU and I was met by a cute little squirrel next to my car, and it reminded me of my 23rd birthday. On my 23rd birthday I was at Baylor, my favorite place to be during the summer. And on that day I went to my favorite spot on campus, book and apple in hand, to camp out and read for a while.

I found my spot, on a concrete step, under a tree. I heard a little chattering, really almost a little bark. I looked over, and there he was, a little squirrel standing a few feet away from me, not a gross, sickly looking squirrel, a Baylor squirrel,a well groomed, well fed squirrel. I glanced over, smiled at the squirrel and kept reading. I bit into my apple, and saw the squirrel in the corner of my eye, waving his little paws in the air and chattering at me. I kind of wanted to give him a piece of my apple, but I kind of thought he might pounce. The little squirrel jumped up on the step next to me,so I tossed him a tiny little piece of my apple, he scurried over and nibbled away. I tossed another piece, he scurried closer, now he was inches away from my hand....you're probably thinking, squirrels have teeth, some have rabies, squirrels are not pets. But I broke off a piece of the apple and held it in my hand, and the little squirrel cautiously came over, and nibbled away at the apple in my hand. In that moment little squirrel and I became buddies, at least for about fifteen minutes, while I sat and fed him bits of apple.

This might sound silly, but growing up I usually had some kind of pet, and often it was some kind of pet I had caught in the backyard, like a frog or a caterpillar, or a chameleon, or a turtle. I love probably any kind of animal, although, I try not to force wildlife into captivity anymore.

But I think that on my 23rd birthday, God gave me that little squirrel as a reminder of Gods perfect and wonderfully made creatures, I'm not sure if God gives birthday presents, but if he does, I think he gave me that squirrel. A little joy on my birthday.

That's my story for today. Next time...look forward to, the dog show experience, dining TZed style in Fort Worth and maybe an update on the never ending school search, job search.

Tutaonana.-I'm also working on my Swahili these days. :-)