I have had two such connections with a deer. The first was at a retreat center in Maryland when walking a field in the evening a doe ran across my path. Immediately after I felt a gentle touch on my leg, and there was a newborn fawn looking up at me as if I was its mother. "No," I whispered, "follow her," and the fawn did. A year later back at the same retreat center, walking the same field in the evening, friends on the hill above the field said, "Look behind you!" And there was a yearling, a few paces back, unafraid, following me up the hill. Then, years later, six months after a beloved friend died, I was again walking through spring woods in the evening, thinking of her and wondering, if she should appear to me what form would she take, and after a number of other possibilities, I decided 'deer'. The minute I did, a doe ran across my path, followed by a large buck. The doe disappeared but the buck didn't. He walked ahead of me down the path I was following, and in the field below, he turned and stopped. He looked at me. I looked at him. I walked closer. He didn't move. We were face to face. Touching. His eyes were luminous and beautiful, holding everything, including me. I stood, weeping with joy and grief and wonder, and when at last I moved on, every time I turned to look, he was still there, motionless, watching me leave.