Finding The Gift In A Difficult Moment: No Living Being Is An Island

 

I experienced something today that reminded me none of us are meant to experience life alone.  No living Being.

My child came through the door early this afternoon and announced there was something “strange” she wanted us to see.  I was zombified on the couch so her dad went with her.  Upon their return they both announced there was a dead deer, female, a block from here.  Neighbors had already notified animal control, who will be coming tomorrow morning to dispose of the body.

“Not the lone female I have been seeing around our neighborhood all year,” I said, putting on my shoes and heading out to ascertain.  With child in tow, we walk to where the deer lay.

As I approached, I knew it was her.  She was not more than a year and a half.  Two at the most.

I was a bit grief stricken.  I wept.  I noticed her injuries and noticed her right ear had been severed completely.  Likely hit by a car in the middle of the night.

I thought of the horrors of life, of humanity.  The cars we drive and how they can transport someone in need and thus save a life and take one just as easily.

I centered myself again and focused on what lay before me.

We gave her a blessing and I will not lie:  I asked Source if she wished to return to her body, to make it so ~ if I could help, guide me.  I knew she had already passed though and had no need or desire to return.

It was quite a teachable moment for our girl.  And to be honest, for me as well.  We have seen dead birds and mice in our yard.  But never a deer.  A deer somehow takes on a whole new meaning, you know?  A wisdom.  Is it because of the size?  Or just a knowing?

I don’t know.

I just know this deer, this young female, who we have seen around our area all year, far too young to leave this earth, had been killed, obviously traumatically.

Standing there like some silly looking human, watching over this young deer’s body, I had the thought:  If she had had a family, siblings, deer friends, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

The world is not always so friendly.

We need one another ~ not just to survive but to thrive.

Hence I am hoping these spaces I get into ~ of which I am in right now ~ where I just desire to be alone ~ are temporary.  Necessary for this marker on my journey.

For not only does the Human need connection, but the Soul needs connection too ~ whether that Soul be in human form or animal form.

For now, I did all I could.  After offering up a blessing, I returned home, took a towel (purple – my favorite color), walked back to the deer and gently placed it over her, making sure to especially cover her head.  It felt to me to be a gesture of respect and honor.  Who would want people walking by, staring in horror?  No one wants their last moments in this realm, in these bodies, to be looked at in such a manner.

Reverence.

For all life.

Where we have outgrown this “rugged individualism” illusion and embraced the simple truth:

We all need one another.