Today as I walked out to dump the compost I saw that the peach tree we planted this year had been a nice side salad for a deer earlier in the day. I was frustrated, noticing the blood rushing to my head and my shoulders tensing. How dare this deer do this! How dare he/she walk into my yard and...do exactly what deer are supposed to do. What an asshole that deer was, to eat. Some nerve.
Okay, so when I started to think about it that way I calmed down a bit. The deer and I aren't at war. The deer and I sometimes have competing interests. Other times we're cool. I doubt the deer is ever pissed and frustrated with me, though they'd have a lot more reason to than I do with them. After all I'm using a hell of a lot more resources than they are, and the land my house is on was their woods a century ago.
The reason for my anger is that I have plans for this land, I have a vision. This deer wasn't a part of that vision. That makes me a poor visionary, it doesn't make the deer an asshole. I have plans for this land, but so do the deer, ground hogs, finches, butterflies, and worms. The thing is, the thing that the deer and groundhogs are teaching me, is that a plan isn't a real thing. It's bullshit, it's subjective, and if it doesn't function it's flawed. It's not that the thing that caused the plan to fail is flawed, the plan is. Nothing is ever finished, plans are always subjective, and just because I say let there be a tree here doesn't mean it will stay there.
Before this season I didn't even know there were deer in the woods behind our house. Now I know. This winter I will amend the plan. This winter I will install a fence at the back of the property and plant wild deer treats all along the back of the fence. I don't know if this will work. If it doesn't I'll change it. Thanks for the lesson, deer.
