For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours, they move
finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the
senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices
we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are
not underlings, they are other nations, caught with
ourselves in the net of life and time.

Henry Bestion – The Outermost House

Romeo … the Wolf

https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/how-one-wolf-charmed-entire-town/

The people of Juneau had mixed feelings about having a wolf hanging around town, playing with their dogs. Why do you think some people enjoyed having the wolf nearby while others wanted it dead?
We have this schizophrenic relationship with wolves. Some people recoil and some people move toward them. I guess it’s a natural fear, since it seems to be somewhere deep in our being—you know, the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs, Peter and the Wolf, Dr. Zhivago. Wolves are bad news. That’s the story we have in our heads. But what to do with a social wolf?

This was not the way it was supposed to go between big, wild things and us. Where you get to know an individual, and interact with them on a social level. Where it has no survival benefit for either party, but it’s obviously enjoyable for everyone. I mean, he’d come over to see me once he knew me. And, I mean, I didn’t feed him. And plenty of times, I went out without a dog, and he’d still come over to say hi. He clearly knew individuals. And it’s hard not to call that friendship. I think most people would agree, we can be friends with a dog. But say, well, ‘The wolf was my friend.’ People go, ‘Yeah, sure…’ Well, why not?

That’s what this whole thing was about. The way we relate to the wild. Even people you’d think would know better believed this to be an impossible situation. We’re talking about biologists, wildlife managers. They don’t want that to happen. It’s their worst nightmare. Because they want an animal to remain a faceless resource that can be managed—can be removed, can be shot, can have a radio collar put on, can be studied. They don’t want people to be friends with individual wildlife.

A Wolf Called Romeo Images

Save Myself – Jane and The Boy

Holding my head again
Making my way through crowded thoughts
Sometimes it’s hard to get out of it
Broke my heart, in the dark
I was just trying to feel something
Falling asleep to the sound of it
Always used to let
You clean up the messes
Down on my knees
Thought I couldn’t stand up on my own
Turns out sometimes you’re stronger alone
Bringing out the fight, yeah
Bring on all the lightning
‘Cause I’m
Looking for a hero
Look inside the mirror
I find one, oh
Carry the hurt when it gets too hard
Pick it up, dust it off, when I fall
Down 11, I get up 12
Don’t need nobody else
Yeah, I can save myself
Got burned, but I learned
Our scars makе us who we are
Now I’m ten feet tall, ovеr my demons
Remind me no one’s got me like myself
Yeah, I love me without any help
I’m the best thing to believe in
For I’m
Bringing out the fight, yeah
Bring on all the lightning
‘Cause I’m
Looking for a hero
Look inside the mirror
I find one, oh
Carry the hurt when it gets too hard
Pick it up, dust it off, when I fall
Down 11, I get up 12
Don’t need nobody else
Yeah, I can save myself
Oh-oh-oh, ohh
Oh-oh-oh, ohh, oh, oh
Oh-oh-oh, ohh
Oh-oh-oh, ohh, oh, oh (ooh, yeah)
I could crumble into pieces
But I got a million reasons why I won’t
‘Cause this heavy is a season
And the sun is always right behind the storm
Bringing out the fight, yeah
Bring on all the lightning
‘Cause I’m
Looking for a hero
Look inside the mirror
I find one, oh
Carry the hurt when it gets too hard
Pick it up, dust it off, when I fall
Down 11, I get up 12
Don’t need nobody else
Yeah, I can save myself
Oh-oh-oh, ohh
Oh-oh-oh, ohh, oh, oh (eyy-yeah, can save myself)
Oh-oh-oh, ohh (myself)
Oh-oh-oh, ohh, oh, oh (I can save myself)
~~

She knows she’ll get her butt kicked if she
chooses aliveness. Her light will blind others.
Her darkness will not let her fit in.  Her success

will provoke conflict.  Her ways of healing will
be judged. Her enemies will want her to
cower. And fear will do its best to take her
down. So she draws a circle around herself and
keeps opening up. Because aliveness is
freedom.  She’s embracing the risk to bypass
the ordinary. And she is exactly what the
world needs right now.

~ Tanya Markul: The She Book

Don’t waste your time on anyone or anything
that makes you feel less than like yourself.  I’ve found
that one of the worst feelings in the world is
waking up to my soul whispering: stop being
an imposter, this isn’t  you.

So I return to the Trees, and that is where I see
my reflection and feel the scratchiness on my
shoulder blades as I grow back my wings.

I let go of who I was to dare and discover who
I am in the freedom of this moment, and just
like the wind, I know I’ll change again, but
gasp with excitement at the mere thought of
soaring in the breath of now.

RIP, old self. You Served A Great Purpose.
~ Tanya Markul (The She Book)