“It helps to keep wild spaces inside as well as out.” (author unknown)

It’s just past 9am. I am late. It’s been one of the hottest weeks of the year. When I get to the workshop I remember – I had neglected the plants in the pots outside. They were drooping already and I knew that if I left them any longer then they would wilt and die.

My natural inclination is to move around quickly.  As such, I bump into things as I go on a regular basis.  Imagine a pinball machine, now picture the pinball.  I am the pinball.  Living and working relying on solar power and rainwater (which is a different post altogether) means that all things take longer.  It is a process and a one I enjoy but I am often in a rush to get stuff done.  Heading down to the stream I remind myself to slow down.

“I sometimes see a deer passing like a shadow through some sequestered glade” (John St Clair)

I see a deer less than six meters away.  Stopping, I felt for sure it would sprint off in a moment but it didn’t.  Ten minutes we stood as still as one another regarding each other carefully.  It was me, finally, that made the decision to leave and the deer remained as I walked away.

Of course, it isn’t the first time that I have seen a deer here.  I often see the flash of tan/auburn. I know the heavy smell of musk, the marks of the hoof in the wet ground beside the stream.  On researching more about these deer I found out they can cross great bodies of water, even seas.

Once, stood in a heavy rainstorm, I was distraught after searching and finding the bodies and feathers of our chickens to a hungry male fox, I saw a Roe.  It was in the the heaviest downpour calmly drinking water.  It was a soothing sight.

Symbolically, deer represent powers in nature that are not easily subdued. a totem of sensitivity, intuition and gentleness.  For me they represent the balance of the wild and the peaceable.  A thing that can’t be tamed but is tranquil no less.

When I made this I was thinking they are the keepers of quiet spaces. In turn, that started me thinking of the mind and mindfulness, of moving quietly through our thoughts and listening and acting. And sometimes of being still. Whilst we cannot always contain our thoughts and feelings, finding a place where we can accept them perhaps.

I have found a skull here in the woods that I have laid up carefully against a tree and more than once fragments of bones of deer in different places.  It might seem odd but I like these treasures I have found, they aren’t macabre they are a sign I feel that these beasts feel safe to rest a while here.

*This piece is available made to order in my shop and will also be up for auction among many other beautiful pieces on Auction for Aid starting October the 8th 2018 – more details can be found here www.facebook.com/auctionforaid/