My Dear Friends
My spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, once called animals “our ancient friends”. I really do feel that way and, in fact, I love spending time with animals. They are so sincere and real and always live in the moment. There is not much of a story to this blog, but because it involves friends from the animal kingdom, I decided to publish it anyway!
A few days ago, my human friends and I continued our tour of Thailand by moving to a new city. I took advantage of the 3-hour bus ride to take a nap and I woke up just as we were pulling into the very long driveway of our new hotel. Groggily coming out of my jet-lagged snooze, I looked over to my right and noticed a deer and a little fawn in a fenced-in pen across the road. With great excitement I blurted out, “Hey, deer!” My friend sitting next to me, unaccustomed to me being so affectionate, gave me a puzzled look! “No”, I shouted, “there are deer over there, look! A mom and her baby!” Unfortunately, we had already passed the mini-zoo and my friend thought I had really lost it.
As soon as I got to the reception desk of the hotel, I was intent on proving that I hadn’t been hallucinating. It is common to see cows and water buffalo in the countryside in Thailand, but I have never seen a deer, so I could appreciate my friend’s skepticism. I asked the lady at the counter, “You have deer at the hotel, right?” And to my great disbelief she replied, “No, we don’t have any deer here. But we have a miniature golf course with lots of statues of elephants, tigers, and snakes.” I was in shock and my friend couldn’t contain his glee at my discomfort.
