The other day after work I felt exhausted and the need to just be alone. So I decided to go visit Mary. Behind my church is a statue of Our Lady of Good Counsel. To just sit with her and take a breath so that I could gather all my thoughts after a hectic couple of days was all I wanted. Her statue stands in the middle of a small field surrounded by bushes and in front of her is a bench. I love this spot because it was quiet all I could hear was crickets chirping. Slowly I drove up to her, parked my car, turned off the ignition, and got out. Keeping my head down I took a couple of steps, until I felt someone watching me. Looking up, I see a deer a couple feet away. Honestly shocked that the deer didn’t run away, I got back into my car. She watched me for a while and started to roam around and nibbling at grass. Eventually she left and I thought I was finally by myself until about ten minutes later she comes back with her three babies. One by one they took over and started to eat. Occasionally, the mom would look at me while her children ate, but I got the sense that after a while she trusted that I wouldn’t do anything. I looked at the mother deer and at Mary. I saw how the mother deer watched out for her children, made sure they were safe, and were provided for. Then while looking at Mary and seeing her hold Christ I knew she did the same, and has been doing the same for all of God’s children and creation all along.
I stayed in that same spot for maybe a half hour or more just watching them until they left. The worries and anxieties I brought to Mary in that moment I knew were heard and the bible verse that came to mind was, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26. Two days later I went back again in the middle of my work day and I ran into the same family of deer. When driving in all their heads went up, looked at me, and continued on. So now I guess I have a couple other friends that enjoy the same spot.
"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature- trees, flowers, grass -grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence ... We need silence to be able to touch souls." ~Mother Teresa