My First Meeting of the Day :-)

The meeting of two peaceful and quiet hearts.

I try to stop at Millbrook Marsh at least once a week, when I'm able. I'm almost always there first thing in the morning, just as light comes to Happy Valley. The sun crests Mount Nittany and then fills the valley with golden light. I am drawn to the light. On this morning, the air was full of bird song as I made my way along the wooden boardwalk. I try to keep my steps quiet, walk slowly, look everywhere at once, scan the treetops. You never know what you might see. Don't want to miss it . . .

As I stepped onto the little wooden bridge over Thompson Run, I first felt her motion rather than saw it. On the bank not far away, a deer had been lying quietly, curled up in the golden tangles of grass and reeds. I didn't see any horns, so I presumed this was most likely a doe. The instant I saw her, I stood motionless, watching, waiting, slowly lifting the camera. She stood up slowly, stretching as she moved, and then she did me the honor of standing still for about two minutes so I could get a few decent shots.

I almost had the sense that she had been waiting for me. Waiting to meet me. Waiting to greet me. Waiting to wish me a good morning: the meeting of two peaceful and quiet hearts. Then she turned and looked directly at me, as I snapped this shot. I felt an immediate sense of kinship and connection with her: her wild gaze locked in mine. It is something to see a wild creature. Something more to be fully seen by one. I wondered - do the wild creatures I have captured for these pages remember me, the girl with a camera? The thought reminded of a quote from a favorite book:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?”
― Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa

I do not know the answers; I only ask the questions. The deer, the fox, the muskrat, the birds - do they remember me, the girl who always arrived just as the light came, and who always held a camera in her hand? I do not know. But I did think this one thought. The deer looked like she knew I was coming: she looked like she was waiting on a friend.

The song: The Rolling Stones, Waiting on a Friend, live at the Hampton Coliseum in 1981.

Two more deer photos from Millbrook:
Curious deer
Family of white-tailed deer