When We Needed It Most, Mary Oliver Sent Us a Fox

Also, a Founding Member Update

We needed an escape. I needed an escape. Samwise and Emily are fortunate enough not know about humankind’s cruelty. But they note when I go through even the slightest change. They read my every breath. They watch my eyes, my hands, my posture.

Beset by hopelessness after yesterday morning’s execution-style murder in Minneapolis, the choice was to either retreat to bed or to the forest. We chose the forest, and the last of the brilliant sunshine before the storm arrives. It was 18 degrees with a wind chill below zero, so we did not see another human.

We left the main trail, followed a smaller one, and an even smaller way that led from the twisted pines, over the dunes, toward the secret place where a sprinkling of Mary Oliver’s friends left her ashes.