Category: Mindfulness

Today I saved a life. It was a small life, but nonetheless still a life. It belonged to a mouse.

Two weeks ago, I started hearing loud crunching noises under the stove in the evening while I was quietly reading in the living room. I imagined it was a mouse because I have heard them before in past houses. I have destroyed them before.

This crunching became a nightly ritual. Crunching, me going into the kitchen, crunching stops, and then resumes when I returned to my book. I don’t know what she was chewing on because I saw no evidence in any food. I assumed this mouse was a she and I hoped there was not a nest of babies. She was just hungry. Aren’t we all? I hoped important appliance wires were not getting ruined with her appetite.

I decided that she needed to go and find a new home elsewhere. I wanted to trap her not to kill her. I have done the latter many times and I stopped after I witnessed the actual moment when a mouse’s neck got in the way of the wire trap. It was an image I did not like. I only have one little mouse, not a plague of them, I can get rid of this inconvenience humanely.

I finally found a humane trap at the hardware store and set it under the stove. Last night while reading I heard the faint snap of the trap door; I knew she had taken the bait. It was only after I heard her banging around in the small plastic trap that I decided to deal with the situation at ten o’clock at night instead of the morning. I put the mouse-filled plastic trap in a shoe box and placed it outside. I hoped she would not get too cold.

The instructions for the humane trap said to let the mouse loose two miles away from the house. Early this morning I walked one quarter of a mile from my house to a little woodsy area, deciding that this was far enough away so she would not find her way back. I felt good, like something special was about to happen and that I had a secret none of the neighbors knew about.

At the woods I opened the box, and nothing happened. No quick action from her to escape. I looked in, to see her crouching, wet, and startled with dark eyes starring me. It was at that moment I knew I was doing the right thing, saving her life. She was so scared, and I realized she was a part of nature that I touched for a moment. Putting the box on the grass, I told her it was safe to leave. She cautiously walked out and stopped in the grass. After a few seconds she slowly wandered into the deeper weeds, hopefully to reclaim a new home.

This was a very mindful moment for me as my concentration was only on her and the stillness around us. I was reminded how precious life is, no matter the form.

Seeing her go into the woods left me with a good feeling. I had saved her. I had connected with another creature of nature, even if it was only a mouse. It reminded me of the power of our world, our universe.

My hope is that you slow down and find your special mindful moments where you connect with a special piece of nature. It brings a sense of peace and appreciation for being alive.

Miss Mouse is on her own now and her fate is in her paws, or maybe someone else’s. I am left with that mindful moment at the edge of the woods and the mess to clean up under the stove. I feel good and all is well.

Smiles,

Jeanette


“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it, and over it.” Goethe