Wolves in the Morning
before I can even put the first words on the page,
tears spring into my eyes
just as I begin to recollect
our morning of Yellowstone wolves,
the rightness of it all shakes me at my core,
once again for us, the Lamar Valley served as theater
where interested humans are able to witness
the everyday work and play of a wild wolf pack,
the technology of spotting scopes, binoculars, and telephoto lenses,
plus the coordination of the lupophile network,
allowed us an immediacy of witnessing their world
without imposing our presence
as unwelcome guests barging into their homes,
though one gray yearling,
with the visual and psychic acuity of a great hunter,
obviously knew we were there,
watched us, and kept her distance,
the first wolf we saw, a black,
was returning to the den area
with a stomach full of a recent kill,
most to be shared with the pups,
our guide anticipated her route home
and positioned us to be ready
to watch the last laps to the den,
when we saw her, our hearts beat faster,
and the joy of discovery suffused us
into excited smiles and quick words,
almost as if a near-forgotten favorite relative
shows up unexpectedly,
and we are delighted to re-embrace the family bonds,
a mile from us, high on a friendly ridge,
the wolf family centers itself,
pups, excited to be fed,
tumble round siblings and parent,
who share food and camaraderie,
distance, though, blocks some of the details,
like a bad connection on the phone
we don’t quite get all that’s happening,
but we get enough to touch the intimacy of their world,
it all reminds me of being present at a birth,
before you a miracle reveals itself,
and we are reminded that the world is larger and more amazing
than we have any right to experience,
we call it grace,
the sense that the Divine allows us to drink from the spring
that is more holy and real than we can possibly deserve,
the wolves today make me feel we’ve visited royalty,
and in their court, up and down the valley,
we visit the rest of the nobility:
bison, pronghorn antelope, mountain goat mother and kid,
and a sleek black bear as we leave the valley,
today magnificence of place and beloved animals
pulls tears of joy from my eyes,
and how much deeper and broader and richer
that we share with two younger generations,
folks with whom we are tightly connected,
when the young teenagers joy in the discoveries
and reach to hold and appreciate
our careful intersections with our wild relatives,
I feel even more the grace of these moments.
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