In the middle of the night across the river a lion roars. I rise from a half sleep and walk to the sliding doors that shut the night out. As they slide open a dimension opens. There is a distinct sense of stepping through a threshold as I go outside into the night. I feel in a few steps I have stepped from a domesticated comfort into a moonlit wildness.
The air is cool on my bare skin and the stars faint against the size of the moon. An ebony tree towers to my right silhouetted in silver light. From high up in the tree a baboon spots the lion across the river and begins to bark thunderously into the night. It is a guttural and sharp sound. RRRRRRAAAAAAA HUUUUUUUU. RAAAAAAAAAAA HUUUUUUUUU.
Its an ancient feeling – two primates awake in the wild, both aware of a predator. There is immediacy to a moment like this. Beautiful as it centers your presence. Aware. Here
Reverence is precipitated by awe. To belong to a process as old as the human experience. To remember yourself as nature. To belong to being alive.
Thank you, Boyd
Beautifully written, as if I am standing there and I too feel, hear, see, smell the exact moment. #presence
I too could imagine myself there. To remember yourself as nature. Yes, I do.
Beautiful. Thank you again for pointing out to me at the Utah conference that animals are indeed my (our) teachers. If we will only listen before we destroy ourselves or the Earth.