This January I have been trying to spend as much time outdoors as I can. When I cannot get away to one of the larger and wilder places in MA, there are several woods nearby that are perfect for a few hours of mucking about.

While most of my friends and neighbours prefer the summer, I like winter. Snowfall makes the abundance of animal tracks that much more noticeable.

Today while my wife Karin and I were hiking we noticed an abundance of coyote and deer tracks. Like the coyote tracks in the photo below.

Then, guess who? Can you see her?

No? Try this one.

Aldo Leopold said there are some of us who cannot truly live without the presence of wildlife around us. In that he was echoing Chief Seattle, who described a loneliness of spirit in the absence of other animals. Stephen Kellert says we have an inborn and evolved love of life, and specifically animal life. I read Leopold, Seattle and Kellert in close proximity as a graduate student. Their sentiments feel so right.

But I would go farther. We diminish ourselves and the world around us if we do not embrace the living world and bring it into our lives. Perhaps Albert Schweitzer’s idea of “reverence for life” captures this best.

Images: iPhoneography.