It’s been said that if there is a race between a lion and a deer, the deer often wins because a lion runs for food and a deer runs for its’ life. Purpose is often more important than need.
Cecile and I were just beginning our early morning walk. She was trailing behind me with Jason’s dog Daisy.
Suddenly, I heard a loud rustling noise in the bushes far to my right, and the flash of a large animal appeared through the trees. It was a stag. Startled, It made a sharp turn across the road to the left. I could hear its hooves making contact with a long white catch basin as it clumsily tried to gain its footing. It rumbled across the terrain like a 350 pound thoroughbred then disappeared into the bush.
I walked further down the path hoping against hope to get another glimpse. After all, a deer sighting of this kind is not a common occurrence on this large tract of land where we live. Just as I was ready to give up, there it stood, out on the open meadow on my left, maybe 40 feet between us. It stared back at me, as if daring me to make the first move. It's elegant rack etched out against the back drop of the field and the trees like a king of the forest.
Time seemed to stand still. I retrieved my camera hoping to capture its image before it fled. I snapped a few shots.
By this time Cecile and Daisy had caught up to me and I pointed to this majestic creature. I had wished I had a greater zoom lens, worried that my iPhone camera wouldn’t capture its essence. Then, I told myself to relax, experiencing this moment in time with this beautiful creature is the “essence.”
I felt like I was in a dream like state, watching something unfold that was surreal and imbued with some sort of meaning. In Buddhism, the deer symbolizes harmony, happiness, peace and longevity. If one were to look up the symbolic meaning behind “stag,” you’ll find repeatedly that the animal represents an in-between state, a world connecting dreams and wakefulness—the world of intuition. The antlers are like a crown, that grow beyond the body, bringing it closer to the sky revealing its sacredness. The fact that the antlers fall and grow again also makes the deer a symbol of regeneration.
Antlers are said to act as a spiritual antennae, urging us to be more mindful of our thoughts and perceptions and directing us to a higher state of awareness. In this faced paced world of technology it seems to be a message worth heeding.
