DEER UPDATE
I've written before about the pleasure I take from watching the deer at a golf course I frequent. Because of my shoulder injury, I mostly missed the deer for almost two years but lately I've started to see them again. I have some mixed feelings about deer in an urban setting: They come up on my porch and eat the flowers and they're big and strong enough to hurt you or your car if they run into you. But they're so beautiful and graceful when I see them in the wild or semi-wild, such as the fairways of a golf course, that I've grown to love watching them. I love the innocence of the fawns, I love the way they watch us and somehow sense we're not going to hurt them, I love the way the herds stick together and move almost as one. I even love watching them feed (as long as it's not my flowers they're feeding on.)
There seem to be more deer this year. I don't know why. Someone told me it means that more food is available. I thought also that maybe their predators, mountain lions, have moved away. I hope so. My reading tells me that if we leave nature alone it perpetually balances species, predator and prey being the most obvious balance. The one thing I firmly believe is that I will see deer as long as I look for them. And that's what struck me the most this year. In my early years, I'm sure there were many deer around yet I didn't look for them, I didn't see them. Now that I do look, I see the deer and many other attractions that are there for the taking, there to enjoy. I find myself happier, more relaxed, enjoying what I'm doing more when I find beauty to look at.
We all have a propensity to focus so hard on various pursuits, school, work, hobbies and the like, that we don't look around. We put our heads down in search of some goal and we don't lift them to view the beautiful things that surround us. Looking at the deer is cost-free (although there is some cost to being in a place where the deer are found). Most of us could find beauty around us if we looked: A park, a stream, a mountain, a person, an ocean, a lake. But we have to look and we have to be ready to see and appreciate beauty. It will make us feel better and do better.
I finally understand what people mean when they say stop and smell the roses. We all have roses near us. Look for them and enjoy them.
4-14-03
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