I do not know if that is a word.  The thought is to be in and of “the wild.”  Nature is alive, undomesticated, responsive to the presence of humans:  physical expressions of our institutions such as roads and buildings, our consumptive way of life, garbage dumps, the oceans loaded with plastic run-off of industry.  Nature adapts, strives to survive given the constraints, the spreading press of human incursion, our subdivisions of manicured lawns, suburbanites dutifully leading canine companions to the park, where the tamed mammal will relieve itself…

The pet dog eats industrial-processed pellets from a bag. The dog’s life is to lie around keeping it’s owner company.

I am lucky.  Our house in Batavia is proximate to Braeburn Marsh, a swath of undeveloped wet-land which extends for many acres.  The marsh is an expanse of cat tail reeds, old growth cottonwood trees and a variety of brush vegetation providing cover for red winged blackbirds, and small mammals such as raccoons, possum, and deer.  A creek that feeds into the marsh runs close to our backyard.

Yesterday our daughter announced with excitement that coyotes are spotted in the marsh not far from the house.  I reached for my camera and hurried to the marsh.  I did not get close enough to capture a picture.  The sun was low behind gray streaked clouds, in the distance I saw two coyotes.  They appeared larger than I anticipated, about the size of a half grown German shepherd.  On the path I watched for a few moments as they moved off deeper into the marsh.

I stood for awhile in the fading light.  My better judgement knew that the coyotes should be left alone, that I’d never get close enough for a picture.

The coyote kills to live.  It kills and eats what is necessary to live.

Good hunting my “friends.”

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These are some favorite lines from T. S. Eliot’s poem, East Coker.

                                     You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
     You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
      You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
      You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
      You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.