How Many Nuts Does a Squirrel Need?
Finding the tiny ripple of insecurity before it sends us looking for reassurance
A squirrel gathers nuts for the winter.
Humans gather information.
Today we carry an entire forest of information in our pockets. News, weather, messages, markets, sports, email, social media, and now AI. At any moment we can check almost anything.
For a long time I assumed checking was about information.
Lately I’m not so sure.
Often I already know enough.
What I seem to be looking for is a momentary sense of security.
During the day a small ripple appears. A subtle feeling that something might not be quite right. Something might need attention. Something might be uncertain.
The ripple is usually so small that I don’t notice it directly.
Instead, I feel the urge to check.
The interesting thing is that I don’t need all the news to be good.
If there are six places I can check, I only need one of them to provide reassurance.
One positive message.
One favorable forecast.
One encouraging update.
One answer from AI.
That is often enough to create a brief sense that everything is okay.
The checking is rewarded.
Not with information.
With security.
But the security doesn’t last.
Soon another ripple appears and the process begins again.
This has made me wonder whether the real practice is not reducing the checking but noticing the ripple that comes before it.
The slight uneasiness.
The subtle insecurity.
The almost invisible feeling of not quite knowing.
When that ripple is met with awareness and allowed with equanimity, something changes.
The urge to check loses some of its force.
Not because certainty has been found.
But because the discomfort of uncertainty has been allowed.
The gaps between check-ins become longer.
The need for reassurance becomes smaller.
Life continues unfolding exactly as before, but there is less need to repeatedly ask whether everything is okay.
Perhaps the squirrel gathers nuts.
Perhaps humans gather information.
But beneath both may be the same question:
Do I have enough to feel safe?
And perhaps the deepest form of security is not found in gathering more, but in learning to rest with the uncertainty that remains.
Spiritual Gravity 