Deer Man

 

"The Universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

Eden Phillpotts

Deer are intriguing to me.

I remember being drawn to the fleeting gaze of a deer, perceiving in her gentle eyes the radiance of her friendly nature and intelligence. My curiosity was satisfied by Geoffroy Delorme’s Deer Man, a unique book that surpassed all my expectations and became an all-time favorite.

  During his childhood Geoffroy Delorme had a disappointing experience at school, so the decision was made to homeschool him. This period of his life afforded him the time and space he needed to explore his interests in the natural world.  He devoured books by Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and other naturalists. He also learned as much as he could about the forests in Normandy, France, where he lived.

 He researched the kinds of foods in the forest that could nourish his body, gleaning information about the rich variety of plants and trees.

Geoffroy bonded with the forest when he was a kid.

 When he was nineteen years old, he decided to immerse himself in those forests, living close to the roe deer. As they foraged for food in the same areas, the deer were very curious about his presence.

What was a human being doing there? The interest was mutual, and their interactions evolved into friendships.

 Geoffroy got to know each deer as a unique individual; complex relationships developed as they cooperated with each other, living side by side for seven years.

 Roe deer have the ability to tell the difference between good and evil, or between those who wish them well and those who wish to do them harm.

 Geoffroy Delorme learned as much as he could from the deer.  He adopted their sleeping habits and gained insights from them about the ways he could support his own nutrition; similarly, Geoffroy was able to guide the deer to safety at times, when hunters tried to attack them. Surviving in the forest was not an easy feat. Winter is harsh, and Geoffroy shares the details on how he was able to endure the season. It is also made harder by the way humans destroy the forests, threatening the sources of food needed to survive and thrive.

“Adaptation to the natural environment is a long process that demands patience. Your metabolism changes. Your mind changes. Your reflexes change. Everything changes, but slowly.”

 It was human encroachment what pushed him out of the forest after seven years of living in the forests in France. His need to speak up for the deer and the forest compelled him to write Deer Man.

 “The forest brings us food and medicine. Without it, our landscapes would be nothing but desolation, and life would be reduced to the most total silence. It is the forest that purifies the atmosphere and allows us to breathe the oxygen indispensable to all living creatures”.

 The experience of living side by side with his deer friends taught him a lot about himself, and he dedicated this book to Chevy:

 “To Chevy, my best friend.

You taught me to live, to feel, to love,

To believe that everything was possible,

And to become myself.”

 

 I cried many times with Deer Man and I’m sure other readers cried too. This book warms the heart and educates the mind. Inspiring and mesmerizing, Deer Man will hopefully instill in peoples’ consciousness the wisdom to guide themselves toward respectful empathic choices, to genuinely honor life through their own humane behaviors. Jane Goodall makes it clear in one line: “Read this book and enter into another world.”

 You can learn more about Geoffroy Delorme’s forest experiences by checking this fascinating conversation at the Greystone Books site.

 

The Wisdom of Wolves by Jim and Jamie Dutcher

 

 “Each and every wolf has a story to share. Can we be trusted to listen?”

 Marc Bekoff

 Every member of a pack of wolves is valued by the others and recognized as a unique individual who makes a special contribution to the group. Their bonds are deep.  Jim and Jamie Dutcher spent six years living in a tent beside a pack of wolves by the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. The Wisdom of Wolves shares their knowledge and experience of living side by side with the Sawtooth pack of wolves, taking us into an emotional journey of countless surprises.

 Jim and Jamie Dutcher describe the wolves’ compassionate nature; they admire their curious courageous spirit. Wolves care well for the most vulnerable in the pack, and they do what it takes to keep everybody safe.  Jim and Jamie examined their relationships and paid special attention to the ways wolves communicate. They also learned how wolves keep each other in check to maintain harmony in the group.

  The authors give each wolf a name and describe their fascinating personalities. Besides, they explain how wolves interact with other species.

  When a person kills an old wolf, the survival of the group as a whole is threatened because old wolves have invaluable knowledge and experience that help the pack. Furthermore, the loss of any member of the group causes deep pain among the wolves. The Wisdom of Wolves elucidates how they grieve.

  The book was published by National Geographic. Both Jim and Jamie Dutcher raise public awareness about the true nature of wolves by writing books, making documentaries and giving talks in educational settings.

 

 The authors debunk the myth of the so-called lone wolf: “We often hear the term of the ‘lone wolf’ in reference to a person who acts alone, cares for no one, and craves no companionship. Sadly, like so many negative things falsely connected to wolves, the term has now come to mean a loner who wishes to do us harm. Such a state is an aberration among humans, and it’s equally rare among wolves.”

  It is important to clarify the concept to avoid misunderstandings and confusion. The truth is that a lone wolf in nature is a temporary phenomenon. Biologists call him a disperser. In reality “the lone wolf in nature is a wolf in its third year or so who has decided to leave its birth pack and strike out in search of new territory and a mate. What does a lone wolf want? It wants to stop being a lone wolf. It wants togetherness, to be part of something bigger.” It is not the aberration that the misused term alludes to.

  The term “lone wolf” should not be used to describe people that have no compassion and empathy for others because it perpetuates an attitude of ignorance toward wolves. It tarnishes the reputation of wolves and is dangerous. Another relevant fact to highlight here is that when the ecosystems where wolves thrive are respected, wolves don’t attack cattle.

   During the fourth year of their project, Jim and Jamie encountered all kinds of threats. They received anonymous letters in their mailbox asking them “to get rid of those wolves or we will." Authorities put pressure on them to make sure they would move out of their wolf camp. They were persecuted in different ways.

 “Somebody posted signs near our camp warning us to be gone or ‘wind up in the Custer County jail.’ Even a former governor weighted in, saying our project was nothing more than ‘wolf propaganda’ and should not be allowed to exist. Jamie and I were painfully aware that we were responsible for the lives of these wolves, but our ability to keep them safe seemed increasingly beyond our control.”

  In view of the stress they faced, Jim went out for a walk to sort things out. During his walk, the leader of the pack, Kamots, stayed close to him. He would disappear into the trees, and then he would emerge again, trotting and exploring the territory, until something amazing happened.

 As Jim sat and talked to himself, wondering what to do, Kamots approached him.

 “In a gesture I’d never seen before, he raised his paw up to me. I put out my hand and pressed it against his paw, and we sat there like that for a minute in silence. I felt as though he was assuring me that if we held up our end, he would hold up his. We should continue to deal with the human world, and in his calm, strong, confident way, he would keep his pack stable and safe. He was that kind of leader.”

 

The wolves gave Jim and Jamie a very special gift: the gift of trust between species, and through this gift they learned a lot about life, love, and compassion. You can visit their website to learn more about their work:

If you enjoyed this post, you will probably welcome my writing on these books:

Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals

Untamed

Unforgotten

Wind, Sand and Stars

“You’ll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself, ‘what they could do, I can do.’”

  Have you ever wondered what it feels like to fly?

  Antoine Saint-Exupery reveals the pitfalls, dangers and adventures of flying a plane in the thirties and forties, but his anecdotes go beyond the flying experience. He will also make you float in the air through his musings and profound insights on life and human relationships.

  “Wind, Sand and Stars” is an invitation to fly away to distant places. This memoir will make you relish each moment of your life.

 The sour taste of tragedies and upheavals leads us to mold resilience, strength and comradeship. Saint-Exupery takes us on this path, while he inspires us to reflect on our own life experiences.
   His writing enchants and bewitches me, for he has the ability to put into words the emotions and feelings that we harbor in our hearts. His stories resonate on a personal level.

 As you enjoy his adventures you will visit different places: the Saharan desert, The Chilean Andes, the Argentinian Patagonia, the Pyrenees and many others.

 Reading this book is like embarking on a captivating journey to the past, present and future. His writing has the power to evoke childhood experiences:

“Gazing at this transfigured desert I remember the games of my childhood—the dark and golden park we peopled with gods; the limitless kingdom we made of this square mile never thoroughly explored, never thoroughly charted. We created a secret civilization where footfalls had a meaning and things a savor known in no other world.”

   Yet the greatest feat of this masterpiece may be the journey into the inner self and into the core of friendship and human connections. It has been extremely difficult for me to make a selection of quotes from this book.  I have savored each and every line, and I know I will return to them in search of wisdom and inspiration.

“Once again I had found myself in the presence of a truth and had failed to recognize it. Consider what had happened to me: I had thought myself lost, had touched the very bottom of despair; and then, when the spirit of renunciation had filled me, I had known peace. I know now what I was not conscious of at the time – that in such hour a man feels that he has finally found himself and has become his own friend. An essential inner need has been satisfied, and against that satisfaction, that self-fulfillment, no external power can prevail.”

“But by the grace of the airplane I have known a more extraordinary experience than this, and have been made to ponder with even more bewilderment the fact that this earth that is our home is yet in truth a wandering star.”

“Men are not cattle to be fattened for market. In the scales of life an indigent Newton weighs more than a parcel of prosperous nonentities. All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming – a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. All of us, on seeing old friends again, have remembered with happiness the trials we lived through with those friends. Of what can we be certain except this – that we are fertilized by mysterious circumstances? Where is man’s truth to be found?”

“Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions.”

"Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded. These prison walls that the age of trade has built around us, we can break down."

“I lay there pondering my situation, lost in the desert and in danger, naked between sky and sand, withdrawn by too much silence from the poles of my life. I knew that I should wear out days and weeks returning to them if I were not sighted by some plane, or if next day the Moors did not find and murder me. I was no more than a mortal strayed between sand and stars, conscious of the single blessing of breathing. And yet I discovered myself filled with dreams.”

 

Problems are opportunities

 The double nature of some human beings baffles me.  This poem of mine published by Vox Poetica is about that.
  If you are in the mood to read something uplifting, feel free to check my two poems published in the winter issue of the Greensilk Journal. I'm sure you will be tempted to read the other poets' work too.
 Today I wrote something about "problems".
Even though we may be prone to feel irritated or frustrated when we encounter certain problems that challenge our beliefs, we can also choose to adopt a different attitude: we can  welcome these problems and treat them as unique opportunities to learn something new. We can embrace them with a positive mindset.
  Problems are challenges that invite us to think of creative solutions.
 They can encourage us to ask questions.
 From my own personal experience in the workplace I conclude that whenever problems are a consequence of conflicts related to communication in human relationships there are three elements that are relevant to handle these situations:
-the art of listening
-the art of non-judgmental persuasion
-the art of negotiation
   The goal of this post is to emphasize that a problem may have the potential to improve something. This does not always happen, though. Sometimes we know there are boundaries that we cannot trespass, no matter how hard we try to make things better. There are situations that are out of our control, and our scope of action is limited. However, we can accept these situations knowing that we have tried our best.  And these unique situations may have taught us something about ourselves, others, or the world we live in.

 I will publish my next blog post on March 5.