Deer Gift

I was driving so I had her read the poem I didn't read at his funeral.  She cried when she got to the part where the deer converse with each other saying: "This one is OK, let's see who she is and why she is sitting on the ground like that, so quiet, as if asleep or in a dream, but, anyway, harmless;"  It reminds her of him.  Finally, tears from the one who has been holding everyone else up.  She was the strong one in the family.  The one to see the bigger picture and that knew he was happy to move on from this life, from this body. 

 I had the honor of driving her to the airport.  We were almost there when I had the thought to let her read the poem.  I had no idea why or that she would respond as she did.  But she saw the deer speaking of someone gentle, someone like they were, someone she knew and loved.  Those words reached through and found a place in her heart.

I walked the next morning in the woods.  Nearing the last half mile I felt a warm and joyous presence beside me and thought this is a visit from my friend who just passed away.  I "heard" a few thoughts from him and said my peace as we walked and then doubt crept in and I wondered if I was imagining this conversation.  Just then a sound tugged my attention back to my surroundings and I looked backed behind me. I saw the source of the call, a deer pawing the ground.  He was standing exactly where I'd first started to feel and hear my friend but had been so busy listening I didn't see the deer right next to the trail.  I thought how rare and unusual that a deer would make a sound. 

Mary