I love that I see deer nearly every day now. When I run the quiet roads in the morning. Or this evening out for my walk, not a soul around except for two deer on the side of the road. I’m ten feet away walking past and they barely twitch. Sometimes when I pass I wave at them, we meet each other’s eyes, then move on. It makes me smile.
More so, after I spend eight hours in an all-day planning meeting over Zoom. My eyes bugging out and my temple starting to pound by the final hour. I am the queen of movie marathons, comfortable working virtually, but the days where it’s a constant close-up stare at your face is draining even for me.
So I escape to the outdoors and breathe in the autumn air, listen to a podcast, pass by my deer, and let myself feel as happy as I am. The podcast in on physical spaces, on how they shape us and breathe life into our prayer, our music, our health. Through my headphones, I hear the wind rush through the trees and I feel shaped by the canopy they create along the road leading to the water. I feel shaped by the sound of the birds’ speakings and my feet shuffling along pavement then gravel then back again. I feel shaped by the deer who don’t run away while I pass by and shaped by the bench on the shore where I sit cross-legged and meditate to the sound of the waves.
My meeting fatigue lasts into the evening, but so does that sound of wind and look of the deer.
With Love,
Natalie