In July 2019, I spent a night in an exceptionally beautiful youth hostel in Sweden called Wendelsbergs Hotell och vandrarhem. After my arrival in the late afternoon, I put my luggage in my room, then went out again, and walked across the lush park, over to the reception that was situated in an elegant 19th century wooden mansion, in order to collect clean sheets for the night. When I returned to my tiny but functional 1960s room, I closed the door, turned around and found myself facing this beautiful animal. I sat down gently on the bed so as to not disturb it, and we watched each other for about three, maybe four minutes through the closed window as it was feeding on the grass. The speed with which the deer swallowed the grass it had eaten, then pumped it up again to ruminate impressed me. I sat still, inexplicably full of love, grateful, alive.
