Rugs

It has been a full year that I've had the hide of the deer that I killed carefully rolled and stored. Wanting to admire and be inspired by the deep colour, sensual texture and characteristic marks, a red splash on the neck and that little spot on the right flank. But it stayed rolled away and stored because how could it be out and not walked all over. To walk on something that beautiful was unthinkable.
Well as all things seem to come to pass, Paula's shed roof had a leak, and that leak flushed water right onto that dried hide rug, causing some potential trouble. Now that I"m living in a very dry house, the hide quickly sprang back to stiffness, and after a couple of days keeping distance from stepping on it (it takes up the majority of my floor) I sprang out of bed the other day realizing...

I will take Every step of this day
as if I am stepping onto the most beautiful expression of life
as each step surely is, this deer is of this same world of
concrete and dirt, forest and field. No matter where I walk
it is all of the same force as this deer that I admire,
though different in form.

Truly, the ground water in the tap, the wind or the tree.
Styrofoam cups in the ditch, frozen for the time being,
each is somehow related, and each step, as the first step
of each day now reminds me, to take each step after
as such a gift.