CHERISHING LIFE

Do you ever get so distracted in life that you miss life?

“You are
A shy divine deer
That I cannot cease tracking.

Though once of late
Did I get so close
To see

My own face and heart
Reflected

In Your wondrous
soft eyes.”

–Hafiz

Along a coastal highway, a deer lies dead, on the side of the road.

My man, Jim, is with me now. He has come to celebrate our anniversary.

I feel the deer’s body. Her torso, core, legs, small hooves. Her teats protrude and her belly is round: she is pregnant.

I choke back the tears.

We continue to hike.

When we return, a car has pulled to the side of the road. A woman stands outside, holds wildflowers she has picked and put in a vase.

She tells us she saw the struck deer in the morning and had pulled her from the road.

Now, near sunset, she has returned.

She picks petals from the flowers as we talk and places them in a wooden basket.

We leave her and hike up a hill.

When we turn around, the woman, who has pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt, is carefully spreading petals across the dead deer.

When we reflect on the experience, Jim memorializes it: “In an hour of death it was an affirmation of life. It was an act completely in-Spirit.”

“In-Spirit” has become a shorthand for us for living connected with something greater than ourselves.

I agree with Jim.

“How many times I have passed a dead animal on the road and not even considered it,” I say. “How different would it be if, instead, each time I acknowledged its life and maybe even sent it a silent blessing?”

“I do that,” Jim says softly.

 What if you…

1. Made it a practice to get close enough to an animal so that you could see your own face and heart reflected in its “wondrous soft eyes”
2. Sent a silent blessing every time you saw an animal whose life had passed – recognizing in that sacred moment that every moment could be our last too; that is part of what binds us
3. Embraced when your spouse, or a stranger, surprised you, inspired you, and you memorialized it: in a story, special note, blog post, to share with others the gift you had received, for posterity…

How much more engaged with life would you feel?

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Jillian Robinson is a Certified High Performance Coach whose passion is to help people live their best selves with the consistentfeelings of full engagement, joy and confidence. She loves to interview and coach changemakers and parents committed to positively impact young peoples’ lives. Her vision is that, someday, personal development will be taught as commonly as math and science. When you participate in her programs, you become part of that positive change.