04/02/2023
Walk towards an animal with your hand outstretched, and most will feel uncomfortable. Walk towards them while wanting something from them, and most will doubt you. Try to walk up to them while tip-toeing, trying to be all quiet, and they will believe you to be stalking them and they leave.
But just sit there, breathing and relaxing, and just BE…and then watch them relax, let their guard down, and they will approach you in their own way, in their own time, at the speed of their trust.
We focus so much on doing and getting and acquiring and making and getting. We are infected by the weight of the thinking that we don’t have enough time. We carry an ever-present impatience that has us always on the move, on the go, with a feeling of unsettled-ness if we ever just sit and stop and do nothing.
But by sitting and doing nothing in the beginning with an animal, a door opens, in its own time, that leads to all we wish to ever feel with them.
Pictured here is Momma-Deer, a friend of Molly Nelson, who took this picture. Molly befriended Momma-Deer four years ago by just sitting and being and letting Momma-Deer approach on her own. And now the deer comes to visit on a regular basis, walking right up to Molly.
I think of “being” more than “doing” in this life.
I think of focusing on how I wish to feel to those around me.
I think of communicating with my presence more than with clumsy words or loud movements.
I think of how a glance of eye contact can say more than staring can.
I think of letting the right time to move or approach or walk or touch “come to me,” rather than me doing it when I want.
I think of how all of life wants to come to me, if only I can stop chasing it, if only I can stop trying to make it.
