The Underworld Surfaces!

Here in Northern California, after 23 records for rainfall have been broken so far this year, it seems we have a bumper crop of gophers. My back yard is a mess of mounded tunnels, and yesterday I walked out my front door to find a pile of dirt spilling out from my flower garden onto the sidewalk. In what conjures up fairly comical imagery, I was told that putting unchewed sticks of Juicy Fruit gum down into the tunnels would cause the gophers to have indigestion or something, and leave! So picture me, stuffing gum into holes. . .with not much result. I imagine the gophers chewing the juicy fruit during the night, smacking their little lips and blithely popping bubbles. . .

But as is my wont, I tend to interpret daily "omens" as if they were dream symbols. So what is a gopher tunneling into my yard and garden? I become aware of a subterranean force that I wasn't aware of a year ago. . .a little "varmint" who's decided to invade my subconscious realm, to make me aware of what's just beneath the surface of my neat and tidy reality. He's aerating things! He's making me focus on the roots of the important things in my life. He is like a little messenger, helping me refocus my attention on core truths. There's more to life than the surface harmony of the flower beds and tidy lawn; another world dwells just below the one I waft around in. And it's bubbling up!