Deer Beholdence

Walking through the woods the other day, a friend and I beheld three deer. Two full grown buck and a smaller doe stood beautiful and majestic as they ate the grass in the field before us. The sunset illuminated their white tails with an amber outline, and I could see the fuzz on their antlers. With out a spoken word, my friend and I agreed that this moment was worth the 5 minute lapse in conversation, and the sudden ceasing of our steps down the path. This was a moment worth beholding.

What struck me most about this moment, however, was not the deer and their beauty, but how unnoticed they went by everyone else on the path. This was not a secluded corner of some distant prairie, you see. Rather, this was an admittedly tiny sliver of forest preserve wedged between streets in the city of Chicago, and the foot path we were one was frequented by many a jogger and walker. Despite the high traffic, and the fact that my friend and I stood in the middle of the path staring into the woods, not a single person paused or even turned their gaze to the deer. No one lifted their eyes, and we were the only two people to take in this beautiful sight; a mere ten feet off the path.

I remember, as the last few people passed by, I tried to look at the deer even more intently, waiting for someone to ask what we were looking at, or at the very least look at what we were looking at. It was to no avail. No one else saw them.

Eventually, the deer moved on and left us standing alone in the path. As we started to move along ourselves, I had the urge to catch up to the others and tell them what we had just seen -what they had missed out on- but it wouldn’t have mattered. It mattered in the moment, and now the moment had passed, and it mattered no more. To them, it would just be the tale of a fleeting moment, but to us it was a beholdence; a moment in which our partaking caused time to swell.

So now, as I share this tale with you, I tell you not of the deer we saw, but of the people that didn’t see. Learn from them, please, and find your own beholdence. Watch for deer as you walk or run along, and you will find the beauty I speak of.