Just Wait

I have to tell you about this really odd dream I had.

It was just another dreary day in this strange, empty life we've been dropped into. When I got up this morning, I thought about getting dressed and said to myself, "Why bother? I can't go anywhere anyway." So I stayed in my sweats. I ate breakfast. I made some calls. I worked on my laptop for a few hours. The time ticked by. It was so quiet I felt like I was starting to fade away, you know? At one point I walked by my mirror, and stopped to look: tousled hair, bags under my eyes, dull, listless. I was surprised I even had a reflection there.

At noon I made my lunch and took it out onto the porch to eat. My neighbor nodded to me from his porch. We have this social distancing meetup every lunchtime. One nod. Doing the tough guy thing.

After he went in, I just sat a while, too depressed to get up. I watched a squirrel, wandering around in the branches, noticed the squirrels' nests tucked high in the trees, far apart from each other. Like us, I thought drowsily, each in our houses, all alone...

I must have dozed off then, because the next thing I heard was:

"Hey, you gonna eat that?"

I opened my eyes slowly. That squirrel was sitting on the deck railing only a few feet away.

"Uh, what?"

"Cause if you're not, can I have some? Come on, just a bite! You're not gonna let a good sandwich go to waste, are you?"

Dazed, I broke off a piece of my sandwich and handed it to him. He took it and started eating, nibbling at the edges all business-like. We sat in companionable silence. After a while, he stretched and sat back with a satisfied sigh. "Thanks, buddy. I haven't had a good PB and J for a long time."

He studied me. "Say, do you mind me asking you something?"

"No, not at all." Who was I to pass up a good chat with a squirrel?

"What's up with you people these days? I mean, usually you guys are rushing around, jumping in your cars, bunching up and yakking. But lately - nothing. No one's going out, everything's closed down. It's weird, is all I'm sayin'. So what gives?"

I sighed. Then I explained, "Well, a lot of people are sick. There's this really bad sickness humans are getting. And it's pretty dangerous - if you're old or sick and you get it, you could die. So we're trying to keep it from spreading, you know? This way, we can wait it out, till it's over."

The squirrel scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Whoa, that's tough. So you're staying in for a while, waiting."

"Yeah." I sighed.

"You know, I get that it's weird for you, but it's really not that bad. Take it from me - squirrels do it every year! We know about waiting." He looked up at the nests in the oak tree. "When winter comes and it gets really cold, we hunker down in our nests and we wait. We sleep a lot. We come out for food and stuff, and then go back and wait some more.

"And you know what? If you wait long enough, it starts to warm up, little by little, till finally you can poke your head out and it's spring. I'm tellin' you, that's the best feeling ever!

"So - my advice to you, buddy, is to keep waiting. It'll get better." We both sat in silence a little longer, and then he stood up. "Well, I gotta go. Hey, thanks for the sandwich!"

"Anytime. Thanks for listening."

He flicked his tail and turned and ran along the deck rail. Then he leapt to the nearest tree, and I watched him zoom up the side and along a branch to one of the nests. He turned and looked back at me one last time. I waved, and he flicked his tail once more. Then he dove into his nest and was gone.

Crash! The plate slipped from my hand and I sat up and rubbed my eyes. What a weird dream, I thought. Talking squirrels.

I cleaned up and brought my tray back into the kitchen, still thinking about what that squirrel had said. Just wait. Hmm.

Animals know how to wait, don't they? They curl up in their nests and burrows and let the time go by. They don't fight the weather. And they know, somehow, when their world is safe for them to come out again. They feel the days get warmer and longer, and when the time is right they start to come back to life again.

I guess we need to learn the wisdom of waiting.

I yawned and stretched, did a few jumps to get my blood going. Then walked over to the mirror. I looked more awake now, at least. "You heard what he said. We've just got to wait. So be patient, and don't give up." I smiled. "We can do this."

Just wait. And take good care of yourself, OK? We can do this.