"Shhh - it's the wolf!"
The Wolf is my daughter’s spirit animal and I don't really mean a tongue-in-cheek spirit animal. That may sound a little "woo-woo", I mean who actually has a spirit animal? But for real, when she was less than two years old, she used to “see” an unseen wolf around our house. It was completely real to her. When the wolf visited, she would freeze in her tracks and shush everyone in the room, quietly pointing to the unseen wolf. She would quietly whisper her warning to us all, “SHHHH, it’s the wolf!!!”
I’m not gonna lie, it was a little creepy – and a lot funny. We had to work hard to be quiet around the wolf. We wanted to giggle, or tell her there was no wolf. But instead, we played along, frozen in our tracks and silent until the wolf went on his way. (I guess it was a he, I never really asked).
She’s 29 years old now and still has a thing about wolves. She feels some kind of interesting and special kindred connection with them. Whenever wolf stuff pops up in her life (I’m not totally sure how this happens), she takes it as a sign that there is something she’s supposed to stop, be quiet and listen to. And you know what? It works.
She sent me an article the other day about the wolves that were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park. It’s a story many people are familiar with, and it’s a good one. You probably know the story: when the wolves were re-introduced, as you’d imagine, they began to prey upon deer. The deer moved to different areas and as a result entire new habitats began to grow, since the deer were not grazing in those areas. Both plants and animals began to reappear in these habitats. One of the most unexpected aspects to the entire ecosystem shift was that because trees began to grow in new areas, the rivers were re-routed. Here’s a great little film on the whole phenomenon.
https://stemjobs.com/wolves-change-rivers/
The article got me thinking about good and evil. If I were a deer, I would pretty much think those wolves were evil. They brought me nothing but fear, predation and death. And from where the deer sit, that’s true. But from the trees, and the mice, and the rabbits, and the bird’s perspective, the wolves were a good thing, a life-bringing thing. And from the river’s perspective, the wolves were neither good nor bad, but the entire course of the river’s life was changed in ways the river had no awareness of
--because of the wolf.
That’s kind of how it is in life. There is no way to stand far enough away from a thing to know for sure if it is entirely good or entirely evil, or a little of both. There is no way for sure to know if it is changing the entire course of your life.
All you can do is participate in the unfolding drama. Go along for the ride. And maybe sometimes get really quiet and see if you can see the wolf.
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