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"The Greatest Gift we can give to one another is rapt attention to one another's existance." Sue Atchley Ebaugh
"It is only framed in space that Beauty blooms,only in space are events, and objects and people unique and signifigant and therefore beautiful." Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Monday....A day of driving for errands for 6-6, looking for jeans, the obligatory trip to the orthodontics office, and searching for groceries. A normal inner city trip, 2 miles from Downtown Cleveland that should have been Ordinary turned into something Extraordinary.
As we drove home through the City on a Big City Street something Very Magical happened so unexpectedly and was shared with other drivers.....
6-6 and I were talking as we cruised about 30 mph and made our way home as the sun started to set. Suddenly the Truck in front of me and the Cars on the other side started to slow....for no reason. All of us Felt our Cars slowing, pausing.And without speaking....Cars on both sides , 4 lanes of Rush Hour Traffic, we all held our breath and stopped, as A beautiful Deer leapt across the road- Silent , Bounding. She reached the other side and stood tall, looking back at the traffic. Inside I knew that there must be young deer with her, the mother inside me KNEW that, could feel that protective tug. Suddenly , sure enough two young adolescent deer darted out across, following her path. It was amazing that all the cars held their position, no one moving, no one rushing. All of us silently praying for these beautiful fragile lives, holding our breathes, their safety in our hands.....Suspended in this Moment of Synchronicity. Time Stood Still.
As the two reached the other side darted behind houses and trees, the mother looked back one more time.....The palpable Moment, of Shared Relief, Gratitude......Being Present....Lives Connected.
*{Click the Title Carly Simon " Coming Around Again" }*
21 comments:
Last year, a deer near us wasn't so lucky. The scene was really awful and she had to be shot by an animal control officer. I was disturbed for days.
Now on Sunday, a large greyish-brown buck ran up the length of our 1/2 acre lot and lept across the very busy street out front. He made it and could be seen bounding into the brush.
We have friend in this gorgeous area of Phoenix called Ahwatukee and once when we visited, we saw a wolf scampering down the suburban street. I thought it was a dog but Jim said no, it was a wolf.
Increasingly, humans and wild animals are coming face to face as our footprint extends further into what was once rural and wilderness areas.
That was a beautiful moment, Enigma. I'm so glad the other drivers knew to stay put until the entire family crossed.
Christopher, are you sure that wasn't a coyote? The desert ones can get pretty big, although very thin. We've got so many coyotes coming down into neighborhoods now, the family pets are in danger. Also bobcats & the occasional cougar.
Dk:
I live urban....so the idea that ANY wildlife is here always amazes me...and I know in my little old neighborhood there is plenty of wildlife....possums, squirrels, rabbits,raccoons, and skunks ( all of whom love my porch)....but where we were is the rough part of town..and even more urban...and I have never even seen a squirrel there...so I was blown away...It was so amazing to see Time stand still..and NO ONE moved or even breathed in that moment...
Chris:
Hey there..sorry about the First deer....but glad you saw the Buck....so amazing...I could never ever hunt a deer....they are so regal, graceful and Noble...I like it when our pathes cross with wildlife....I like it I when I know we all are connected...even little fuzzy things....
Christopher, are you sure that wasn't a coyote?
DK,
I just asked Jim what we saw that night and he said it was a coyote. My bad!
I grew up in a city and didn't know things like fireflies and roadrunners were real until I visited Arizona in my early 20's and saw them for reals. I guess that sounds strange but you don't see fireflies and roadrunners in San Francisco unless you're watching a cartoon.
This is probably why I love Arizona so much -- it's like a Disney animation to me.
Chris:
A Roadrunner? I would not know one.....unless there is an anvil falling out of the sky.....And fireflies- my son had not seen them until we moved by Lake Erie- but he never saw on the West Coast...
( and coyote or wolf- both would have left me speechless....and amazed....)
Yeah, the roadrunner looked like this big, anorexic bird and it had feathers sticking out of his head and just like in cartoons, moves at warp speed across the desert.
Oh, you know what else we saw? A huge, like the size of a soup bowl, hairy black tarantula. I almost stepped on it. It flipped me out so much I ran back inside the house and locked all the doors and wouldn't open them. Totally freaked me out.
That aspect of Arizona I didn't like. I love the outoors but I have to be able to control what is out there.
Hah, Christopher! I was really questioning my sanity. I've lived in many deserts, but never seen a wolf! Lots of scorpions & rattlesnakes, though. They are facts of life in deserts.
Enigma: you have a regular menagerie right there on your front porch! I fed walnuts to the squirrels & chipmonks this winter. Now Roadrunners, whooaah, they are the best! Very distinctive when you can catch sight of them (they are fast--zoooom). I once saw one grab a lizard, dash it against the sidewalk, swallow it & zoom away, all in about 3 seconds! Sometimes, if they don't know you're watching them, they will stop & kind of flip their tails up & down before hopping a fence & running on.
But you know ... I've NEVER seen a firefly & only spot deer way out in the back country ... Mule Deer (with ones w/big ears) ... actually our dogs see them first & set up a racket. Don't worry, they are leashed.
DK,
I confuse wild animals all the time.
Unless they are really well known and common like raccoons and skunks. We saw a skunk running along the sidewalk one morning when we took Ginger for a walk. I had never seen one in daylight but Jim said he thought it had rabies because they're not supposed to be out during the day.
Kinda' like vampires, I suppose.
Chris:
ours here are out in the day all the time- they don't have rabies...they scurry about- I have many in my neighborhood..and one little family that hangs near by ( I blogged about them last summer- I call them "the Slippers" because they look like slipppers waddling down the sidewalk....) They have never sprayed me or my dog- or my side-by-side.....( now the neighbors...that is another story)....anyways...our first opussum we saw last summer- and 6-6 thought it was a "armadillo"- I will never let him forget that...it was a riot...
When we lived in Pacific Grove ( Ca coast) I managed an old dilapitated Victorian Rooming House and I had bushes on the first floor, and the deer would wander there in the eve...right down the street...( we lived about 2 blocks from the beach...people saw them down near the beach too)..anyways they would come and eat the bushes..our poor old bassatt would sit and stare- she thought they were some kind of goat..she loved them....I have seen one other deer here ( that looked lost...down at a park) but I have never seen deer running through traffic here....
Now your story about a hairy tarantuala...and the Road Runner...now I know what I will be dreaming about....oye....
Enigma, I really needed to read this. I have tears in my eyes, I don't know why it affected me so much, maybe it's your writing, the way you described the cars stopping, the silence, everyone in unison patiently letting the deer -- life -- cross the street. What a sweet moment in a stress-filled world.
Thank you. You are a beautiful writer with a great soul.
xo
Lyd
I definitely prefer deer the way you describe them, in their beauty and majesty, over the way I've come to know them. Funny. But when I read what you wrote, I realize your feelings about deer are closer o truth than my own.
XDell:
maybe it is all in the moment...how you see them....( and obviously I would make a terrible hunter....I treasure life...all of it...small and furry...and big and bounding....)
Lydia:
ahhh, you are more than welcome...I try to share what matters....a spot of hope....a shared moment..it was such an amazing powerful, unexpected moment....Life....thank you again ....( I just write...what happened...)....keep writing....
Thank You Enigma! That was such a beautiful snapshot you shared... it is as if i saw those deer myself. Lydia is absolutely right - you are a beautiful writer with a great soul.
What is amazing to me is that when i read one of these simple moments you write about it turns into something not simple that resonates far beyond the 300 or so words you use.
It also brought to mind those somewhat similar instances in my own life that time has stood still... camping in the NM mountains with my boy scout troop, waking in the middle of the night with a black bear standing above my sleeping bag - thinking i was dreaming i watched for a few moments, went back to sleep and woke in the morning to find the steaming present he'd left on my bag... driving with my parents in Sequoia Natl forest and having to stop while hundreds of black and brown california tarantulas crossed the road... squatting outside my kindergarten room at recess staring at a teeming anthill... walking in the desert with my big, sweet black lab/rottweiler dog and as we rounded a thick cluster of sagebrush and pinon, coming face to face with a very large mountain lion not 15 feet away - and backing up very slowly... on an arrowhead hunting/camping/fishing trip with a buddy in Colorado and coming thru the brush on the banks of a 10 foot wide creek seeing a massive bull elk staring back at us from the other side... walking on a sidewalk with my wife after dusk at the "Y of the Rockies" and on hearing a bunch of snuffling sounds looking up and around as we walked right next to a small herd of two bucks and five doe elk... hearing a crash one day in Durham, NC and finding a deer had broken through a tempered-glass window into the lobby of the building where i worked and it trying desperately to smash its way out - i grabbed a 10 foot extension ladder, held it crossways and herded that poor injured animal out the entry doors that co-workers had managed to get open...
Thank You Enigma!
Ball of Light....
Thank you....very much...such nice memories flooded you....wonderful....that is what writing is all about....helping us all remember what matters...
I have had experiences along that line with deer and wild turkeys. It really is cool to watch and to see people do the right thing. Deer are so graceful to watch! When they jump they just kind of flinch and they sail. Pretty neat to watch isn't it? I'm glad you both got to see it!
Patriot:
We saw deer when we lived in California , as I wrote above....they were like Neighbors ( and the seals that used to Bellow down at the beach- no wonder our poor bassatt was Soooo confused) ...they used to eat the bushes beneath our window....But I can't believe we saw them in Downtown Cleveland...at Rush Hour....very unexpected...magical...and three together- a family like that....and that the Traffic- ALL of it recognized it at the same time.....
Okay ...Wild Turkeys ????really ? I don't think I have ever seen a Wild One...okay I am going to look them up....
Lovely! thank you. Peace MandT & Bodhi
You know, you want to say that's pretty cool and it is but it means we're
Just now they were saying they had to lock down a school a few towns over because of a bear.
encroaching on their territory.
Gardner is a town but we had a dear in the yard last year ans I wasn't kidding about wild turkeys. I mean about 20 of them!
I have seen the flock in my back yard but like you said, on a few occasions i and others have stopped on the street while they marched across single file. I can remember as a kid chasing one down route 62.
Anyway wild turkeys are dark brown and not as big as domesticated. Take care!
too true, avg patriot. we are encroaching so much on their territory. in a bad winter or too dry summer, they come down from the wild areas & start hunting in the neighborhoods. they are not at fault. we are. we had cougars in CA, very scary chainsaws w/teeth.
I saw wild turkeys in Grand Canyon-north rim a couple years ago! A bunch of them pecking around near one of the trails. Our dogs alerted us. Between the kaibab squirrels, mule deer & wild turkeys, they had a ton of fun. Leashed, of course!
Patriot:
when I lived in the NW I had cougars and bears in my back yard...here all I have to cope with is some skunks an possum....Bears and cougars are a whole different story...owe....
DK:
least your dogs recognize wildlife- our old bassatt was always trying to bring animals in the house...even a fuzzy baby cougar....
D.K. I am a nature freak in every degree. I just hate to see us encroaching on them. though I absolutely love having them around. I almost forgot my dog chasing coyotes. not too bright of him!
Enigma! I'm not as foolish as i use to be I can do without Bears and cougars. I'm perfectly happy with Possums and skunks!
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