Book Preview; The Elk and I

April 20, 2015  •  1 Comment

Book Preview

‘The Elk and I; Thirty Days Along the Sun

Day 15

They are everywhere. A hundred at least, maybe more. It is madness. Is there anything quite as wild as a massive elk herd in the rut? The cows parading, and bulls with their siren like bugle. It's like a war cry. Amidst the chaos I hear it, over and over. That primal cry. I feel it consume my senses. This last cry, however, is beyond the rest. The herd bull, no doubt, and much closer than I thought, moving through the trees behind me. On all sides the elk are running, dancing, snorting, screaming.  It is wildness and mayhem. My inner world feels afire, somehow akin theirs. Their madness, their rawness, their passion, their insanity, their freedom. I have never felt so fully alive. And then he's there, walking slowly out from the trees behind me. Too close. From only yards away, he looks at me, his eyes wild and full of passion. I feel him, his presence, his power, his insanity, and his purity. It is all but overwhelming. By all means he should have charged me, or spooked and bolted. Instead, he just stands there, his mad eyes locked into mine. He sees into me, going deeper than I have dared to travel, and he takes me with him. And in this, somehow, our spirits seem to touch, this elk and I, and we are one. In those moments everything I think I am evaporates, and all thats left is all we are. Everything, the only thing, the no-thing. For an immeasurable amount of time we stand there, but we are not really there, we are everywhere, in everything, together and alone, for forever and just a moment. Dancing in the stillness. And then the moments shifts and we are back, eyes on one another. He lowers his head and turns, and his eyes let go of mine. As he trots down to join the frenzy of the herd, I stand there still, and watch him go, thoughtless in my feelings. Amidst the mayhem I slip beyond the meadow through a grove of aspen trees, and walk to a silent place. I gaze out over the valley below. Dusk now. My heart is soaring, my feet rooted deeply, and I have never felt so happy, or so sad. I feel tears flooding down my face, and I choke a little on my breath. My chest heaves and heaves, and something washes out. Then I just sit, trembling and alive. I rest my head in my hands and sob, and breathe. The twilight begins to fade. From the valley below a wolf begins to howl, and then another, and another. These songs speak to a different listening. Home, they say. Welcome home. How could I have forgotten?


Comments

Donald McKinnon(non-registered)
Hey Michael,
Your written account of your encounter is awesome, gives me a much fuller flavor of your total experience. I hope to talk to you again soon.
Don (the Orb guy)
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