The Deer, The Fox, and The Long-Tailed Weasel

Long-tailed weasel on rocks in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Photo Credit: Joe McDonald

Sometimes I read things that really resonate with me.  Things like this from The Long Tailed Weasel Makes Our Week Memorable:

The things of man continue to push the lives of all other earthlings off the map. Any time I see a wild creature, my heart beats with a kind of relief over the message, “We are still here. We are not all gone yet.” No one can see the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parakeet, the Moa or the Dodo, but I can still stand beside the coyote, the deer, the fox and bobcat, the striking skunk and the pretty monarch, the muskrat and the western bluebird. I hope I never take this for granted.

I have been thinking over the idea of my recall for wildlife, and it occurs to me to wonder about the world’s ancient petroglyphs and the record they provide of animal encounters. Could it be that like me, my ancestors etched and painted and recorded the things that stood out most vividly in their day-to-day lives – meetings with powerful, cunning, charming and beautiful animals? Some researchers ascribe spiritual significance to rock and cave art, and this may well be true, and it could also be true that the spiritual experience being carved on the rock was of the purest kind of wonder at the variety of creation and the sacredness of life.

It’s comforting and inspiring to know that other people have similar thoughts about non-humans- particularly in a largely non-vegan world.  I also hope I never take the animals for granted, or lose my wonder at the sacredness of life.