Bits of wisdom have come my way from family and friends, teachers and strangers, across the years. Sometimes, the memories of most of our interactions are shed, and I hold tight to the morsel that still shines bright.

Sometimes, I don't think to include the animals and trees and different forms of wildlife as bearers of wisdom, but they are. I could list quite a few, but our small family cat, Ashley, comes to mind at this time. She had a habit, especially when my husband was away, of bringing treasures into our house through the cat door to my attention. There was a small bat who clung to our ceiling fan, a cottontail bunny who darted behind the bookcase, a quite large iguana-type lizard that she set in my husband's closet atop his shoes. There was a Carolina wren. She was very gentle in how she carried them - they were not injured, and we returned each to their outdoor habitat.

It was a bit of a challenge to carry a foot-and-a-quarter long reptile back outside. At the time, she worried me - was she a danger to the outdoor animals? But she did not seem to be exhibiting an instinct to kill.

I can't put into words exactly what I learned. Sometimes I wonder if the visitors she carried into the house somehow permitted her to do this. I mean - how could she capture a bat and that big of a lizard? It was as though she was sharing something about the outdoors with us people in front of our TV indoors.