Loving living in the wild

If someone asked me this morning whether I believe in sacred animals, I would have to say yes.  Have you ever seen an elk in the wild?  Belle, Gabby and I took a walk this morning.  We easily walked the length from the house to the mailboxes and really wanted to walk more.  That in itself is a huge improvement from where I was this time last year.  :-)  I decided that since Gabby wasn't on a leash and she only comes half the time that I ask her, it was time to go back to the house. 

Luckily the dogs were busy sniffing here and there because I looked down at the end of the road and saw the elk.  I have only been blessed one other time in the years we have lived here to get to see them.  I quickly brought the dogs in and got the binoculars.  Oh my, what majestic creatures they are!  Ok, so when you see them at NW Trek, they are totally outweighed by the bison.  And I think they just don't get the billing that they should there.  But here, in pretty much my backyard...wow.  They deserve the name of sacred creature.  I would even say that I felt like they were guardians of our woods.

When I was younger I read a lot of fantasy books.  You know, the kind where a person walking in the woods would come upon a group of fairies playing in the woods.  They would either watch quietly until they fell asleep and would wonder in the morning if it had all been a dream, or they would join in the fun and often get spirited away to where the fairies live.  That is how I felt watching the elk.  I felt blessed to have the chance to view them. 

There were only three that I could see today.  They were wary of me, even with as far away as I was.  Only one stood and watched me as the others walked further down into the field.  I wonder how many times we have scared them as we walked in the pitch black down in that area in the mornings.  I wonder how they made themselves invisible, not only to me, but to my dogs.  These are the things I love to think about when I have time to contemplate life.