Fresh Air, Deer in the Backyard and Tides

There is so much fresh air here in Olympia – I am surrounded by trees that I keep smelling all the time. The bay smell of a low tide drifts up into my backyard. And the fragrant smell of flowers and bushes and trees also is present.

This morning, three deer walked through my backyard. A mother and two babies. The mother walked up the stone steps that opened up right below the kitchen window. She was followed by her babies that walked so close to me that I could see the patterns of their fur and where little tufts of fur stuck up out of the rest, like the hair of a child just woken up. Plus there were lighter patches of fur to their coat.

Living so close to the water, I see the tides come in and out and it reminds me of living according to the tides at Camp Gallagher. Every morning, we would look to see where the tides were and this would dictate whether we played on the low tide beach or whether it would be easy to walk the sailboats out because the tide was in. The tides would dictate where we would go on overnights and we would have to time our departure and arrival according to which way the tide was flowing.

It is a lesson in humbleness - to have a part of nature you cannot control and that you are dependent on.

So now, I can look out to see whether the tides are low or high and miss being at camp and taking off in sailboats or kayak or canoe and letting the swift tide carry you to your destination – or struggle with everything you have against the tide to your camping spot before you are carried away from it.