Dodging Skunks!

We almost got sprayed!

He was the size of a large cat. In fact I thought he was a cat; but the way he was lumbering around it didn't look right.

Then I saw the white stripe.

Then I smelled him!

Had we been one minute earlier we would have been sprayed for sure.

He lumbered across the driveway and under the cover of the branches of the pine tree by the garage door.

No way to get to the car except by passing right by his hiding place.

---

We had to come up with a strategy. We waited a few minutes; then I told Sempai we would go on a count of three.

"One..."

"Two..."

............... "You go first!" I blurted out.

Then we both started to laugh. 

"OK" I said - "we're not sissies. Let's do this!"

We held hands and this time on "three" we raced as quickly and quietly as we could, hugging the opposite side of the drive, past the tree and into the garage!

Whew! We made it safe, sound, still smelling fine.

---

I got to thinking about the little beady eyed guy with the stripe. How much fun he had given us. What an adventure. What a memory.

Dealing with him was the best part of my day.

Funny thing was he WAS a threat. But we never hated him. We never wanted revenge. We never felt the need to turn others against him.

I started thinking about all the other "skunks" in my life. The people who are hard to get along with, those who have hidden agendas, those who are unfair.

They do have a couple things in common with the furry guy. Just like him they might be doing something that gives us trouble - even damages us - but just like him - they just don't care.

Get mad at a person who bothers you and the only one you hurt is you. Heck; most of the times people are so self absorbed they don't even notice you. Don't realize the harm they are doing.

But it's easy to forgive an animal. Harder with people.

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But what if we looked at everyone the way we look at animals? Some animals are dangerous and need to be dealt with. The same with people. (That's why a lot of people learn martial arts).

But most of the troublesome people in our lives are not attackers. They are more like skunks. They are unaware of us. Unaware of how they might damage us.

Animals are easy to laugh at.

It would be nice if we could laugh at people the same way too.

What is it that makes us look at people so differently than animals? I'm not sure. Maybe it's something inside of each of us. Something we need to work on.

But wouldn't it be great if we didn't see our "enemies" villains?

Wouldn't it be great if we could see them as they really are.

Lumbering skunks with beady eyes. Hiding under a tree. Keeping us out of the garage.

Then even some our problems would stop being problems; the would be an ADVENTURE!

Some of our problems might even be the best part of our day.