Animals Are Weird

Animals Are Weird

by Wayne Dillon

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Some of the most profound interactions with animals that you can ever have are the ones that you aren't looking for.

Growing up in the DC area VA, I often found myself wanting to escape. Not really knowing how to remember, I spent many times drawn to the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was where I had spent many weeks trying to learn bush craft and some flicker of self reliance. The times that were not summer where the best. There were few people that bothered me in the dead of winter, and this is where I started changing the name of my camp outs from bush craft to "cold, wet and hungry time".  

One of the mornings in this pursuit, I found myself a terrible, dark mood. The previous night I had attempted a debris shelter and spent the rest of the night wide awake trying not to freeze to death. When the sun came up, I went to one of my favorite places. Great Stony Man, in the center of Shenandoah, has a kind of magic and austere beauty that helps me to calm down and to think. I was debating as to whether it would be worth it to stay and keep trying.  

Approaching the summit, I happened upon a group of crows in the middle of playing.  They were used to me by now. I was one of the few people they saw regularly this time of year. Sitting on my favorite stone, it was hard to ignore the crows and focus on my 'oh so serious' problems.  I noticed that there game kept getting closer until they were only a few feet away playing catch. There were 7 crows with 1 stick. The wind at this peak was refreshing and steady and they were using it to hover in front of me and play king of the stick. When one of them would bother the stick holder, try to grab it from him and drop it, as it fell beneath the cliff, several would dive over the edge for it. A moment later, one would appear triumphant. Holding the stick, it would wiggle its wing hovering 5 feet away from me showing what had happened. It won that round.

Needless to say, I was completely engrossed for hours until they finally went off to their one devices and weird lives.  The best of moods had come over me. My problems were not quite so important. I found a calm energy that stayed with for the rest of the day. I added much and many improvements to my shelter and ate what food I had. In that calm productive mood, I also found that the animals that still lived in the area that time of year cared far less about my presence and would come much closer. The forest seamed happier.

That was one of my favorite lessons from the trickster of the woods. Don't rush but do. Your pursuit Is not serious, but sincere. Move. Continue. Every day is a good day.