Life Lessons Inspired by Animals & Nature

Wisdom Found in Animals’ World

How animals helped me to succeed — in personal and professional life

Inspiration for my post was an article written by George J. Ziogas. In his piece, George talks about the adaptability of wildlife to live in urban areas and what we could learn from the animals. It’s a captivating, well-written essay, and I recommend it to everyone.

This made me think about all the lessons I have learned from animals and nature and how they contributed to my success. I’m having a fulfilling life, including a job I enjoy. Though my career is in the IT field, and I often work with the most modern technologies, the skills that I found most helpful in my profession (and life) are not those that I learned at the university but those that I observed in nature and the wisdom I found in stories of elders.

Here are two of my experiences that have inspired me and show me the power of nature and animals in our lives.

Freddie and the drought

No matter what, stay calm and keep going; live in the now and do your best to survive. Better times will come.

Freddie is one of my steers. He taught me valuable lessons, including one that proves that we are the only person in charge of our life and destiny. But I leave this lesson for another time; today, I would like to share another wisdom I learned from him.

In 2019, we experienced the crescendo of 5 years drought. For years, we were getting less and less rain, below 50% of average yearly rainfall, and in the last year, we got barely 30%. All dams were empty, so I carted water for my cattle in a 1000-litre container on the tractor. Like the entire area here and most of Australia, the farm looked like a desert. I had to feed my animals, but fodder was extremely expensive, so I could afford to buy only the necessary amount to keep my pets alive.

Some of my neighbours had to sell their stock, and some farmers couldn’t bear all the pressure and committed suicide. Actually, the drought was so bad that despite all I went through in life, this was the first time I felt pushed to the limits of my mental abilities. I thought this drought would break me.

I watched my animals, who came to the gate every day waiting for food. When I couldn’t give them anything, they didn’t panic, they didn’t go into despair, they didn’t lament that life wasn’t fair. No, they didn’t do anything we humans love to do in desperate and hopeless situations. What they did was they walked back to the paddock and tried to find some tiny roots or softer bark on bushes or trees to put something into their bellies. They did their best to survive.

And when they finished their walks, they returned to the gate, lay down to rest and waited for me.

When I brought them food, they enjoyed it. They didn’t fight with each other; they just peacefully ate and chewed their food. I still remember the unbelievable peace and serenity I felt when I sat with them and watched them chew, thinking to myself, “The situation is desperate… I’m running out of food for them; they have nothing in the paddock, dead wildlife everywhere, yet they stay calm and peaceful… Well, panicking wouldn’t help them, either. Would cost them valuable energy and make everything worse”.

And we survived the drought. Since then, we had floods, and now we are approaching another dry season that could last for years. Yet Freddie is doing well. He is bigger than ever, in fact, the biggest animal in the area (maybe except for some bulls of my neighbours) and calm and peaceful as he has always been.

Practical situation when this lesson turned out to be very helpful.

In 2022, things went terrible for me. We had floods and everything was getting damaged by water (luckily my home was saved). George’s mental health deteriorated drastically, and my physical health started to fail me too. On top of everything, I lost my contract, so I had no income (I’m the only breadwinner). To make it worse, I couldn’t look for new work because of my health. George was panicking, yet I kept thinking about Freddie and how he got through the drought.

I thought to myself, “All you need to do now is keep calm and get healthy. When you have your health back, you will find work, and everything will be fine. Just keep calm, rest and get healthy.” And it was what I did; I was just resting and enjoying my farm and animals. People asked me, “How can you sleep at night? Aren’t you scared of what will happen if you don’t have income? What if…” blah, blah, blah, all the negative thoughts. And I replied, “Would lack of sleep help me to recover sooner? I doubt it,” and then I told them about Freddie and the drought.

In four weeks, I recovered and was back in good health. Two weeks later, I had a new contract with a great company that cultivates excellent culture, which paid much better than my previous contract. If I didn’t keep calm and concentrate on my recovery, I would only ruin my health to a point where I couldn’t work for months or even years.

If I could give anyone advice, remember to keep calm regardless of the situation because panic and despair won’t lead us to anything good. In fact, they will ruin us much more. The bad times will pass, and better times will come. All we need to do is live in the now, concentrate on the tasks at hand, stay calm and keep going.

Twinkles as George’s mental health counselor

George suffers from mental health issues; unfortunately, drugs haven’t helped him much… When I first met him, he wasn’t an animal lover. Actually, he was firmly convinced that animals have basic needs and lives, and it has nothing to do with our human life, which is so much more sophisticated and complicated. However, he had been watching my animals for years, and now he realized how much he could learn from them.

When Jeffrey (my lorikeet whom I have rescued and raised since he was about four weeks old) went missing, I couldn’t stand the emptiness in my home. Jeffrey is a very unique character and one of the biggest inspirations and joys I have ever had (one day, I will share his stories of courage, determination and… hope; one of his stories made rounds of Instagram and inspired thousands). I decided to go to RSPCA and get another lorikeet — not to replace Jeffrey (he couldn’t be replaced), but to get my mind off the pain of missing my little feathery friend.

Nobody knew Twinkles’ story. I was told someone found her somewhere with a cut wing and brought her to RSPCA.

I took her home. She was depressed (these birds are highly intelligent, and therefore, they can suffer from depression). Pretty soon, it was clear to me that Twinkles was actually a wild bird that got caught (she had much too long claws that got caught in things, making her easy prey), her wing cut and put into a cage. She didn’t become the funny, cute pet people see on YouTube, so she got chucked out and left at the mercy of the world.

She had to relearn all she knew when she came to my place. Her survival skills, perfect in the wilderness, were absolutely not appropriate for living in a house. Luckily, a couple of days after I got Twinkles, I got reunited with Jeffrey, who became a teacher to Twinkles (all Jeffrey knows is life in the house; though he came to the world in the wild, he has never experienced wilderness, as he fell out of the nest being a chick unable to fly).

It took some time, but now Twinkles’ flight feathers have grown back, and she can fly again. Because of some of her conditions, she wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild, but she is perfectly happy with us. She has fully adapted to life in a house; she has a box on my couch, where she occasionally builds a nest (though she will never have babies because Jeffrey “isn’t into her” — lol), and she enjoys her life.

The change in George

One day, I saw George sitting lost in his thoughts, watching Twinkles.

“Are you all right?” — I asked him

“Yes, I’m fine… I was just watching Twinkles and thinking to myself how well she adapted. Her entire life, as she knew it, got destroyed. She was taken away from her natural environment, separated from her partner, got a wing cut and put into a cage. Who knows what else had happened to her before you got her… And even then, she still couldn’t fly, and climbing was hard for her, too, because of her long claws. Yet she never gave up! She doesn’t get desperate or give up when she gets caught somewhere, but she tries to free herself and keeps going. That’s absolutely amazing and fascinating,” — said George in awe and with admiration

“Yes, George, you are right. It’s what life is about: to keep going and make the best of what we have. Lament and despair won’t help us in any way. Animals know this. They do their best to survive and keep going.”

Whenever I talk to George, and he isn’t feeling well, going down the despair path, I gently change the topic to animals, asking about Jeffrey or Twinkles or what the dogs were up to. And every time after our chat, George starts to feel better. Animals understand life and can teach us how to have a fulfilling life.

If you love nature, check out the following articles by other great writers — I'm sure you will enjoy them too!

Joe Merkle in her article describes her close connection with trees. She also shares a beautiful poem and wonderful photos.

B.R. Shenoy takes us for a walk in a park in Washington, DC and shares magical photos from the park.

Fatunla Samuel shares his experience with helping a neighbour and gives some tips what to do in case of home accidents.