Life's little treasures

Once in a while, when you least expect it, life sends you a little treasure.  This happened to me recently.

It was Maryland in June.  We were visiting the vineyard owned by my brother and his wife.  On the morning of the last day we were there, I was sitting with my brother outside their little cabin enjoying coffee and the cool breeze. The green everywhere was blinding, especially for eyes accustomed to Arizona.  The birds sang in the surrounding trees and occasionally changed positions between the branches.  The scene was peaceful and beautiful.  

But the scene was not always so peaceful and beautiful unfortunately.  A couple of days earlier we all began to smell a foul odor on the wind from time to time.  Soon after, a workman on the property informed us he had found the source of the bad smell.  In the tall grass near where he was working, lay a small doe that had been shot and left to die there.  Illegal hunting is everywhere I guess.  As if that were not horrible enough,  also found near by was a small fawn, also dead.  I am told that when a doe leaves a fawn that is not yet weaned, the fawn will stay exactly where the mother left it until it returns.  It curls up into roughly the shape and size of a dinner plate and will lie there completely still even if someone walks up to it.  It is totally camouflaged, and at that age, it emits no odor.  This is what protects it from predators.  This fawn, however,  had no returning mother, and it simply died of starvation and cold.  We were all saddened by these findings.  It seemed so out of place.  In such a peaceful setting, such things are just not supposed to happen.

On that last morning, as my brother and I sat there, I all at once saw movement far down on the cleanly mowed grass that stretched out from the cabin.  At first I thought it was a dog, but it turned out to be a cute little fawn.  It was galloping straight toward us.  There was no adult deer in sight, and I could see nothing chasing it.  It actually looked as if it was just running toward us for the fun of it alone.  When the little spotted fellow got within 100 feet or so of us, it finally noticed it was heading straight toward a couple of aging guys in chairs drinking coffee.  It just stopped, turned around, and ran all the way back down the lawn from where it came, finally disappearing into the woods.  I  looked at my brother and asked if he had seen that.  He had, and we both sat there totally surprised.  Neither of us expected that little treasure to present itself.

So why did that happen?  Random occurrence.  Maybe.  But as I think of it now, and bypassing logic, science and the like, I choose to think this little guy showed up just to tell us everything was okay.  "Hey guys.  I am here, and there are a lot more of us out here.  Don't count us out."

Sappy?  Sure.  If you are silently laughing at me right now, so be it.  I am retired, and I don't care.  :-)