The Squirrel Who Clubbed Me

Copyright (c) 2014 Joe Vitale

A few days ago a squirrel clubbed me on the head with a copper pipe.

I've told the story (a true one) a few times to friends, and they all enjoyed it, so I thought you might, too. Here goes...

One day a squirrel moved into the attic of our home. Since my office is on the second floor, and the squirrel moved in right beside it, I could hear him all day long watching TV, playing loud music, cracking nuts, throwing balls against the wall, and just generally distracting me with his antics.

I told Nerissa about it and she went searching online for a humane solution.

She found a place that sells squirrel houses. They are made out of recycled materials, mostly an old tire. You hang it in a tree, the squirrel sees the better deal, and he moves out of the house and into his own hanging apartment.

So I bought it.

It arrived quickly. Nerissa read the instructions. They were detailed except for one small oversight.

I'll get to that in a minute.

We went outside and began the process of hanging the squirrel house in a tree. It couldn't be any tree, though. It had to be a tree right beside the house. And it had to be a tree limb where the squirrel could easily see it and get to it.

That was easier said than done.

We have a lot of trees here. And a lot of tree limbs. We spent thirty minutes taking turns trying to throw a rope over the right tree limb. We'd get it over a lot of limbs, and occasionally over the phone line, but hitting the right limb was like trying to shoot a flying mosquito with a dart gun.

When I finally got the rope over the limb, the next step was to attach one end of the rope to a hook on the top of the tire house and then hoist it up.

That wasn't easy either, but we did it.

Once it's up, you twist the rope until a hook at the top of the tire turns and clips over the limp. At that point the tire is now hung on the tree.

But you still need to get the rope off the hook.

The contraption was designed creatively and brilliantly. A copper pipe at the end of the rope was attached to the hook. When you tug on the rope, the copper pipe releases and the rope comes down.

That wasn't a snap, either, though.

I tugged.

Nothing.

I tugged harder.

Nothing.

This is where the directions forgot to tell us something.

I tugged even harder and the copper pipe came off and came flying at my face at about thirty miles an hour. I turned away but it still hit the side of my head.

The directions forgot to tell us that when you tug hard on the rope, it's going to release and come straight at you.

Nerissa ran over to see if I was OK.

I was dazed but fine.

I had to ask her who she was, but otherwise there was no real damage.

Now here's the million dollar question:

Why did I attract this accident?

In my new Nightingale-Conant audioprogram, The Missing Secret, and in my Miracles Coaching program, I explain that we do almost everything unconsciously. My hitting myself in the head was unconscious, and a (somewhat) natural result of doing something new.

But there's a larger reason for this accident.

Last week a dear friend lost his father. I love my friend and I loved his father. There was a lot of grieving, and my friend was hurting. I wanted to help, but there is rarely anything that can be said that will take grieving away.

But I now had the story of "The squirrel who clubbed me."

I called on my grieving friend every day, to see how he was doing. He was not doing great. But when I told him the squirrel story one day, he laughed out loud. He even thanked me.

I've since told this story to several people, usually people who are hurting and need a diversion or distraction.

It always works.

So somehow my "squirrel clubbing me" story was attracted to help several people in pain.

That's pretty wonderful.

I'm glad I had the experience.

I suggest not everything that hurts you is bad. It may be for your own growth.

Or it may also be for the humor and healing of others.

Or maybe I'm just squirrely.

PS -- Yes, the squirrel moved out of the house and now has his own hanging pad. I was outside the other day, saw him peeking out of the tire, and waved at him. He gave me the thumbs up sign. At least I think it was his thumb.

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