As we rounded a curve in the lightly wooded southern Illinois countryside I caught a glimpse of her ahead and to my left bounding past someone\u2019s house. Her tail was down, so she was not alarmed as she moved through the cluster of semi rural residences.\u00a0 She appeared to be on a diagonal course that would intersect the road at about a place and time seeming to match our own scheduled arrival.\u00a0 I dropped a gear and set the pipes to singing.\u00a0 I dropped my left hand signaling my riding partner to remain behind me.<\/p>\n
She turned her head slightly at the sound of our approach, but continued her carefree trot toward our inevitable meeting until she stood abruptly on the far side of a shallow ditch that lined the left edge of the asphalt.\u00a0 Again she turned her head toward me.\u00a0 Her tail was yet down.\u00a0 She showed no sign of fear or undue concern.\u00a0 By now I was almost at a standstill and our eyes met.\u00a0 There were no words that passed between us, but the communication was quite clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter you, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, no.\u00a0 After you, Ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI insist.\u00a0 You first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not trust you, dear, any further than I could throw you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s meaningful.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t appear that you could throw me at all.\u00a0 In fact, I observe you haven\u2019t the slightest hint of velvet upon your brow. Oh, but the Dragon, her I would wisely avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever you see it, Ma\u2019am, I will not proceed until you yourself are across or away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you wish.\u201d<\/p>\n
She seemed to almost tumble to her left into a relaxed gait along the edge of the ditch and then suddenly, with a leap, broke to her right and, lifting her white signal and touching the asphalt only twice, she stood safely upon the other side.\u00a0 There she paused once more having placed several feet and a handful of small trunked oaks between herself and the road. \u00a0She looked back over her shoulder to watch us pass with her tail still held high.<\/p>\n
I gave her a nod of farewell as we eased on past and wondered at the mystery of nature.\u00a0 How complex is this world in which we live that wraps in a single package such grace and beauty; such danger; such innocence; and yet such evil.\u00a0 That death and life are so tightly bound is, no doubt, a secret of why we acknowledge the beauty of so much that is gathered around us.<\/p>\n
Be safe, primitive lady of the woods.\u00a0 This day I wish you well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we rounded a curve in the lightly wooded southern Illinois countryside I caught a glimpse of her ahead and to my left bounding past someone\u2019s house. Her tail was down, so she was not alarmed as she moved through …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}