The Owl and the Squirrel

They lived in the same tree—
an owl and a squirrel.

Their lives rarely overlapped.

One belonged to the night.
The other to the day.

One evening,
they began to talk.

“The night is better,”
said the owl.
“It’s quieter.
You notice more.”

“The day is easier,”
said the squirrel.
“You can see where you’re going.
You find what you need.”

Neither was convinced.

They went back and forth
until there was nothing
left to say.

So they decided to try.

That night,
the squirrel stepped out
instead of staying in.

The forest felt unfamiliar.

Shapes shifted.
Paths seemed to disappear.

He wandered for
a long time
and found very little.

Once he nearly ran
straight into a tree.

Even the places he knew felt
strange to him.

The next morning,
the owl went out instead.

The light was too sharp.

He blinked,
moved slowly,
and kept missing his landings.

Sometimes,
he simply stayed still,
waiting for the brightness to pass.

By the end of the day,
neither had done much.

They returned to the tree,
looked at each other,
and said nothing.

The next day,
everything went back to
the way it was.

The squirrel in the light.
The owl in the dark.

They still crossed paths—

but they stopped trying
to change each other.