Toronto isn’t exactly the kind of environment in which you expect to be accosted by wildlife as you walk down the street (at least of the nonhuman variety). True I was bitten by a dog a month or two ago, but dogs aren’t wildlife; they may be dangerous to clothing, leg and limb, not to mention shoes, but that doesn’t make them wildlife.

Well, this morning a Mutual-of-Omaha-moment literally dropped from the sky.

There I was, early morning, walking to work. In my hands were my lunch, a book, and more importantly, a coffee that had yet to touch my lips.

I was walking, head down, semi-conscious; greeting the day with my usual enthusiasm when it happened. Out of the corner of my eye two grey forms descended with the considerable speed that only open air and gravity create.

The two greeted the ground with a loud thump. Then, after a momentary mental adjustment, they ran in separate directions. It seems that two squirrels fell out of the tree above my head. They missed landing on my head by no less than two feet.

I was briefly startled and then greatly amused. It is not every day that you see the lords of the urban jungle fall out of their vertical homelands — especially so close to ones head!

Once again, even in the dim reaches of my pre-caffeine shuffling, I was made aware of another world, another drama, another reality, if you will, going on around me. What caused gravity to override the nimbleness of squirrel feet? I have no idea, I didn’t hear a scuffle, but maybe I just wasn’t tuned into the fight.

Life is happening all around us. Battles are ragging unseen around us — some far more substantial and life-threatening than a couple of squirrels. Just because we walk through our days and lives, numb to their reality doesn’t mean they aren’t there. All we have to do is wake up, or better yet look up!