Intelligence is Everywhere - Looking at Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals: Tiny Books on Big Ideas, #2

By Teresa Griffith

Do you ever wonder what your cat is thinking or feel silly talking to your plants? Through this collection of stories and observations, explore intelligence in all its forms and broaden your perspective on this planet we call home.

These are big ideas. Read slowly. Absorb fully.

 

Tiny Books on Big Ideas are distilled wisdom - more depth in less words. There are four books in the series and they do not need to be read in order.

 

Book 2 of 4 Tiny Books on Big Ideas

Non-sequential series

Pages: 137

Words: 17,953

• Language: English
• Publisher: Teresa Griffith
• Release date: May 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9780992120474

Teresa Griffith

Teresa Griffith draws inspiration from nature and shares stories from her life on a small farm in Canada. She has also written Love Your Skeletons, a guide to overcoming painful or embarrassing skeletons in your closet, and two memoirs: York Boat Captain -- 18 Life-Changing Days on the Peace River and Forging Sisterhood in the Frozen North. In her series of Tiny Books on Big Ideas, she shares revolutionary principles and observations of how the universe works, the roots of happiness, connecting with profound intelligence, and deep, inspired wisdom on relationships with others and ourselves. For more information or to contact Teresa, visit teresagriffith.ca.

Book preview

Intelligence is Everywhere  - Looking at Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals

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Copyright © 2020 Teresa Griffith

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical; or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Available on paperback print-on-demand from lulu.com

ISBN 978-0-9921204-7-4

teresagriffith.ca

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Other books by Teresa Griffith

Tiny Books on Big Ideas, Book 1: It All Belongs – The Law of Attraction and Nature of the Universe

Tiny Books on Big Ideas, Book 3: Two Trees – Attitudes that Lead to Wellness

Tiny Books on Big Ideas, Book 4: Togetherness – Healthy Friendships, Relationships and Communities

Tiny Books on Big Ideas – Volume 1: 4 Books of Insight and Inspiration in 1

Love Your Skeletons

York Boat Captain – 18 Life-Changing Days on the Peace River

Forging Sisterhood in the Frozen North

In gratitude and appreciation

for the capital-I Intelligence

working through me.

We have made a riddle out of simplicity; therefore, we have not read the sermons written in stones, nor interpreted the light of love running through life.

- Ernest Holmes

Introduction

I stood as a sentry so my dog, Gunnar, would eat his food. He's like that sometimes; he'd like someone to watch his back while his head is down, munching. The morning sun was lighting up the trees and the dew everywhere. My gaze went to a flash of motion I saw high up in a spruce tree behind the garage. It was a squirrel climbing the trunk, so quickly it amazed me. I guess they are made for climbing—sharp claws, long bodies, long tails that they must use for balance. It makes sense; they have to be able to climb trees because that's where their food is. One mild winter day I saw a squirrel eating spruce cones one after another like tiny corn on the cob. It used its front paws like hands and moved the cone back and forth like a typewriter carriage. I think I watched it eat fifteen or more cones, and I’m sure it had stored up hundreds of cones for winter!

It suddenly struck me—there is intelligence everywhere, because capital-I Intelligence runs through it all. Source, Spirit, or God, saturates everything. Although the amount or flavour of intelligence varies, It is there. A wooden fence has less intelligence than a squirrel, but why not treat it nicely anyway? It's not about the fence's ability to understand and respond. It's about how I treat the world around me in general. I could treat everything I interact with as dumb inanimate objects for me to use and abuse or I could treat them with respect, as having a measure of intelligence.

This book attempts to encapsulate my exploration and observations of intelligence in many forms. My travels in Canada's north inspired some of the chapters that follow. After my northern adventure, I returned to live on the farm I grew up on. We have alpacas, horses, chickens, cats, dogs, and a myriad of wildlife; they all provide me with ongoing opportunities to observe and learn about how the universe works. There is a smattering of science in the latter chapters. I hope you enjoy my stories and insights.

Animal Intelligence

Eddie

We humans are supposed to be so smart, but it took me years to realize that my cat, Eddie, was actually telling me things when he walks into the room and meows loudly. I used to think it was random, nonsensical, or maybe he was talking to a cat he heard outside, but now I know he is definitely trying to tell me something. I realized it one day when he walked into my office where I was working at my computer and squawked loudly—he doesn't have the classic meow sound. He was so urgent, and he seemed to want me to follow him. I did, and I discovered I had left a frying pan on and it was starting to smoke. It seems my cat came in the office to tell me so!

After that, I started paying attention to the present circumstances whenever he squawks. He can make different noises, but for the most part, he just uses one, so it's up to me to figure out what he's trying to say. There are only about four things that I've translated so far, the first being the there's something dangerous going on in the kitchen! (Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit he has used this more than once.)

Many people have noticed their cats talking when they are hungry or want to go outside. Eddie is no exception. He will also use body language to wake me if I've forgotten to feed him. After jumping on the bed and purring loudly in my vicinity, he starts touching my face with his paw. If that doesn't wake me up, or if I'm resisting getting out of bed (the truth!) he will start introducing a tiny bit of claw into the paw-touching. If that doesn't work, still using the tips of his claws, he will touch me on my eyelid! That gets my attention! It's as if to say, I'm really hungry. Now GET UP! If he could, he would probably open my eyelid like