Posts tagged with "meaning"
Signs, portents….and hedgehogs
Knoydart is a week in the past and already it feels slightly unreal. The hideous cold that mugged me on the journey home has finally gone but the email backlog remains.
But Knoydart hasn’t really left me; I’m thinking about things a bit more, wonder about the significance of things a bit more and exploring what’s in my head a little more often.
In our final sessions in Knoydart we talked about making meaning out of the things we see and experience. Dave had said that may people who do workshops like this experience strange things when they get home. I smiled wryly and thought “yeh, some people”.
Then I opened the front door and found the hedgehog on my doorstep. I live in suburbia, surrounded by concrete and tarmac. Around here hedgehogs are sad, flat things you see on the dual carriageway that leads out of town; they don’t usually knock at the door. It’s also pretty clear that my unexpected guest is in trouble; wobbling around in circles, much smaller than he should be at this time of year. I think, “Mother Nature knows best, don’t interfere, leave it alone”. That particular thought lasts a nanosecond before it is booted out by the thought, “aye right, if humans hadn’t tarmaced over nature, that hedgehog would be fat and hibernating by now”.
So a cardboard box, sawdust and shredded newspaper have been assembled. Kitchen scales have been sheepishly borrowed from a neighbor to confirm our guest is less then the 650g needed to survive hibernation. And the cat is sulking as her meaty chunks and crunchies are offered to the interloper.
Two days later I’ve reverted to being ten years old. I know I should respect him as a fellow living thing, but damn, being cute is an effective survival strategy! ‘Mr Prickles’ as he’s now known, is no longer hypothermic and he’s putting on weight, but sadly he can’t stay. Our house isn’t really suitable for long term hedgehog care so I’ve sponsored a hedgehog pen at the SSPCA wildlife rescue centre and they will be collecting him tomorrow.
I resist the urge to wave as the blue van drives off but I ‘m left wondering, what does this all mean?
