I spent the day in the woods with my brother sharing in one of his passions: preparing for his fall deer hunt. We walked trails brushing and moving a years accumulation of obstructions out of the way. I’m not a fan of venison, don’t like hunting, but I enjoyed helping him prepare. We each move in nature differently.

At his hunting camp I encountered this deer skeleton. My brother said they hang the remains of the deer after butchering for the chickadees to pick clean during the harsh winter months.

I thought of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s, In Memoriam A. H. H, read in my school days

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed.

And, of course the question: how have you decided?