On one of my evening walks, I came across four deer. An older female, one doe and a couple of yearlings that were feeding near our garden that is situated near the main building here…. I guess for the gardener they are pest, for me, as well as for many others, they are just beautiful. The younger ones ran off as soon as they saw me, but the older female just stood there looking at me. I slowly walked up to her and stopped when I was about ten feet away. She did not seem to be afraid, did not stomp her hoof in warning but just watched me. So I watched back. I then started to sing and this got her attention. She lowered her head and even looked at me side ways, like a dog would; it made me smile. I then moved on and she followed me for a short while. A couple of minutes later, further down the walkway, I looked back and she was still looking at me. Some deer seem to have little fear of humans and I wonder why that is. I was walking slowly so perhaps she felt I was not hunting her. I often wonder what goes on in the minds of our brothers and sister in the animal world, a question that I have been pondering all of my adult life and perhaps even when younger. I think there may be more going on than we might think and who knows; once in a while they may feel a certain frustration that they can’t communicate with us. It is like there is a line that can’t be crossed, keeping us isolated from one another, or perhaps a better way to state it is, it keeps humans cut off from those creatures that have not stepped into a form of self awareness that has to ask questions and try to figure everything out. In order to even ask a question, no matter how simple, there has to be a space of separation formed. As a species I think most humans feel a great deal of inner loneliness, a feeling of being cut off, a price we have to pay and one worth it for the gift of our intelligence and our deep inner lives.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
