Lately I’ve been struggling to find something, anything, to get excited about. I bet many of you reading this can relate. On a daily basis I feel overwhelmed with terrible news stories that are affecting my mental health.
My go-to tactics for a temporary mood boost are: go outside, go outside, or go outside. Or! Listen to music, snuggle or play with my dog or cats, bake or cook, lose myself in a novel, or read up on birds, insects, animals or anything nature related.
I’ve gotten super excited in the past few days because I’ve been studying up for a program I’m giving next Friday, February 28th at the Etowah Library at 1pm about BATS. (If you live locally here in western NC, I hope you join me!! and if you do, please introduce yourself and let me know you found the program through my blog) As you may know if you’ve been following along for any amount of time, I LOVE bats. I love learning about them, watching them, talking about them, and most of all, teaching about them. Bats fascinate me and I’ve written numerous articles about them through the years. I know that bats do not usually make anyone’s Favorite Animal list, and that many people actively fear bats, but I am passionate about changing their minds!
In the dark times we find ourselves in, bats can provide some inspiration. Here are a few things we can learn from bats:
Think about bats. They are active at night, able to navigate in complete darkness using advanced sonar. (Bats are NOT blind!) They spend nearly all of their waking hours in the darkness. But guess what? This doesn’t result in problems because they rely on their unique adaptations to show them the way. They trust their senses. They go where they need to go, not affected by the dark, or by the fact that they may never have been there. When flying they map out their surroundings, studying and learning the way with ease.
We humans are very different than bats! We seem to run through life half-present. We’re on our phones, browsing social media, or thinking of our to-do lists, or worrying about a million things that are on the horizon. We’re endlessly distracted, seldom fully present. For anything.
We can learn from bats, as they teach us to notice our surroundings. They teach us to be fearless, showing us that if we are afraid of the dark (or change) we’ll never use our wings and experience flight. We’ll never reach our potential. They teach us to spend time hanging out with friends. The things we’re thinking and feeling and experiencing can help lead the way. Bats teach us to trust ourselves, to eliminate the distractions, to be fully in the moment.
I’m envious of the Chinese culture, for viewing the bat as a symbol of good luck. They use bats in much of their art, depicting these gentle mammals in a positive way. The symbol below contains 5 bats, each representing a blessing, surrounding the symbol for longevity.
Longevity
Wealth
Health
Love of virture
Peaceful Death
I wish all of these for you.
Here is some old footage from my time witnessing the bats emerging from Bracken Cave, in Texas. If you’ve never seen this– highly recommend!!
Enjoy the footage, and enjoy the weekend. Don’t forget to prioritize your time and your mental health. Humans were never meant to be connected to the world 24/7. Here’s your sign to STEP AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE, and get outside, look at the stars, read a book, hang out with friends, or do anything that you enjoy!
Special thanks to Joe for sharing footage and being organized!
I hope to see some of you next Friday!