The Mindful Mouse

This is my story of the mindful mouse!

It starts with me looking out of my bedroom window with my binoculars. Straight onto a bank of tall beech trees with gnarled roots and magical hidey holes. I am spotting the birds and still hoping I might see where a nest may be.   

The nuthatch scurries distinctively upwards around the ivy. I wonder if it is nesting nearby because I am certainly aware of it’s piercing song every single day! When it flies to my bird-feeder it pecks at it in the same way a larger woodpecker does.

There are robins, blue tits, chaffinches, blackbirds and other birds I have yet to identify. It’s magical!

However, this story is not about the birds, but about a mouse, in fact, it starts with two mice.

Hidden in the trees

At first I think it must be a tiny wren scuttling across the tree roots. Then with my binoculars I see clearly, two mice. They scurry swiftly amongst the ferns and twigs.

One of them sits for ages beneath some green leaves – perhaps it is eating? The other starts to drag a fern towards a hole in the tree trunk. I wonder if they are preparing a nest in which to raise a family?

They are very sweet with long tails and big brown eyes. At first I think they might be dormice. But no, they’re wood-mice. And later that same day, as I chatted on the phone to a friend, I told her about them and how charming they were.

The mouse at the birdfeeder

Then when I put the phone down, I looked out onto my bird feeder. What should I see but a mouse balancing on the fence and stretching towards the seeds.

Well, I’d not seen mice there before – only birds, and now and again, a squirrel. How incredible was that! Could it be one of my courageous couple from the trees?

The mouse with the sweet tooth

Next day, I headed out to my car, and discovered a pile of crushed polo mints in a pile on the floor of the back seat. With shredded silver paper and some mouse droppings.

What! Is there a mouse living in my car? Has one of my intrepid mouse friends discovered a way in to feed on sugary treats?

I’ve cleaned the car out completely and checked all over. I don’t think there’s a hidden guest. Perhaps he was simply a visitor, drawn by the smell of sweets.

3 mouse encounters

But I was intrigued to know why I’d had these 3 encounters with the unassuming wood-mouse. Literally within 2 days.

I discovered these lovely spiritual associations, a reference to the mouse as a monk!

‘The universe is conspiring to shower you with tiny, quiet miracles every single moment of your life. Mouse spirit animal knows this. This is what makes mouse a monk. If only we all could know this. Mouse in his quiet, unassuming way prompts us to remember that miracles make sense in the quiet where nothing else clouds our thoughts…This is what makes mouse a monk. If only we all could know this. When we stop looking far and wide and outside of ourselves for the answers and, instead, truly focus on what is right here with us, we begin to see the Divine in the details.’

Stacey L.L. Couch

What a lovely reminder that the minutest of details are in front of our very eyes if we take the time to be present and aware. Thanks little mouse! I’m happy to share that message!

Full article on Mouse the Monk here.

The importance of ‘tiny’

I also recently enjoyed listening to Dr Erica McAlister of the London Natural History Museum (BBC Radio 4 ‘The Life Scientific.’) As an expert on flies she was sharing her enthusiasm for them in this year, 2019, which is International Year of the Fly.

It’s a way to acknowledge how every tiny creature, even the often maligned fly or mouse, has a place of importance in our universe. So don’t forget that for yourself too.

No matter who you are or what work you may do. Trust that you are an essential part of the ecosystem of life!

Join me for early summer evenings embracing stillness on our next 6-Week Mindfulness & Meditation Course.

Yvette Jane – Mindfulness & Meditation Guide