Listening

The first time I visited Window Rock in Arizona I climbed out of the van, looked up, and saw a perfectly formed, miniature deer high in the branches of this tree. It was teeny tiny and of course it wasn't really there. I guess maybe 30 hours is too long to spend in a car. I think I drove the early morning shift into town, jolted into alertness by the sight of the remains of a grizzly tractor trailer v. car accident. Anyway, since that "vision" I've thought a lot about deer. Five years later I read Michelle Huneven's "Jamesland" which features a character that may or may not have hallucinated a deer entering her house. Reading that book I discovered that the deer has significance in Buddhism as a symbol of listening.