Chipmunks and Kale

We have some very healthy chipmunks in our backyard. I know this because they’ve eaten all our kale. 

Every year we plant kale and lettuce and spinach in our raised bed garden that sits on our driveway. The lettuce and spinach are great for a bit, but then the heat gets to them and they turn bitter or they go to seed and they don’t last through the summer. The kale, however, can tolerate the heat, and it typically keeps producing copious amounts of super-greens all summer long. Except this year—because the chipmunks have eaten it all. I’ve seen them eating it. I’ve also seen them running around our driveway with their cheeks stuffed full with kale.

I’ll admit for a bit I contemplated trapping the chipmunks and relocating them. Then I remembered I tried this one year when the chipmunks were digging burrows under our steps and near the foundation of the house and I was worried they were destabilizing things. I trapped and relocated 22 chipmunks before I gave up—no joke. Apparently when you remove one chipmunk, another is ready to take its place. On a side note—if you ever want to trap chipmunks, I suggest using helicopter seeds from maple trees as bait. Highly effective. (And if you happen to notice a high chipmunk population at MacKay-Jaycees Park, I know nothing about it…)

Once I remembered how hopeless it would be to try to remove the entire backyard chipmunk population, I resigned myself to reluctantly supporting a healthy chipmunk community in SE Grand Rapids. I then realized I had a choice. I could either be bitter every time I saw a chipmunk nibbling at our kale, or I could take delight in watching these little creatures—I could wonder at the diversity of God’s creation and the resourcefulness of these little guys.

I decided my summer would be more joyful if I chose the latter. I even get a bit of a virtue kick out of it—I’m sharing out of my abundance with those less fortunate. Plus, I enjoy the thought of super-healthy chipmunks zooming around our neighborhood.

There are times, however, I confess, when I still want to throw something at the chipmunks while they’re eating the kale. Times I want to rush out the back door shouting, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Go away! Go away! Go away!” Times I wonder if it might not work to put a fence of small-mesh chicken wire around the kale to keep the chipmunks out.

I’ve discovered living a life of graciousness to others—in this case, to chipmunks—is a lot of hard work. Being generous with things we consider “ours” takes a lot of intentionality. It’s hard to let go of things we feel entitled to. It’s true with chipmunks, but it’s true with other people, too, of course.

There are a lot of lessons here I’m trying to learn. The way we choose to respond to disappointing or frustrating things that happen to us can make a world of difference. It takes a lot of intentionality to be gracious. It’s better to hold things loosely than to be miserly. It’s more fun to give than to try to guard what you have.

Maybe all these things are just a bit of what Jesus is trying to teach us when he tells us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on this earth.