Did you ever get an out-of-nowhere feeling that stands your hair on end? The other morning just before dawn, that feeling woke me from a sound sleep. Then I heard an unearthly scream that sent creepers up my spine and made me feel prickly all over. Another scream came from east of the house across the road. By the time I jumped out of bed and looked out my window, the screams sounded right outside of my office. I ran from window to window, hoping to see the creature, but wraithlike, it slithered through the shadows up the ridge behind my house and dissolved away over the hill. The internet confirmed my suspicions. The invisible screamer is a female mountain lion, and she’s madly in heat. Unlike a typical big cat, she moaned and caterwauled all through the broad daylight, spooking deer and stirring up all the dogs in the valley. And to think that I’ve been walking the woods, blithely unaware that 120+ pounds of riled-up feline lurks amid the trees. 
I cannot stay out of the woods, though. All winter long, they called to me, even when the snow or wind or temperature kept me housebound. But now that everything is waking up and new life is stirring, I must be there, enfolded in the magic. Oh, you can bet that my vigilance is honed. For now, I’ll take my hubby and my longest walking staff. But nothing can keep me from Nature. It’s as essential to my life as air and water. 
It is the surety of earthy things that helps me keep my balance. Come summer, I’ll be barefoot out among the pines. Were it not for the encroachment of “civilization,” I’d be barely clothed, as well. Digging my toes into the dirt, breathing the mingled woodsy perfumes into every cell, and opening myself to all the nuances of the living Earth do more for me than any pill or potion. Even the wildness of that restless lioness adds a delicious element to the experience. As did the bear (as big as a Volkswagon), the elk (as big as the bear), the king stag (as big as the elk). And the wolf, who was magical. I delight in the fox’s eerie cackle and look forward to the seasonal choirs of coyotes, too. They are fur beings, come to teach me something. You can bet I’ll ponder that lioness energy in its rowdiest form and see what’s in it for me. You can also be certain that I’ll watch my back until I know that the big cat has moved on. 
Trackback URL For This Entry Is http://www.32direct.com/blogs_ma/trackback.php?id=1246
Kitty R. Connell
My Blog I
My Blog II
My Website | 
