“Cavorting” and “gamboling” embodied

While lethargically doing pull-ups on a machine at the health club this evening, I stared out the picture window onto a big empty soccer field as the tail end of a thunderstorm sprinkled down. Suddenly, across the field, a deer emerged from the surrounding bushes moving slowly onto the field, followed by two large fawns. While the mother stood there chewing her cud and looking around, the two younger deer ambled further out onto the field… and then just took off, racing and leaping down the field, twisting in the air, running towards each other, then dashing apart. Their pure joy at running around in a cooling rainstorm made me laugh out loud.

A young guy walked by my window and did a double-take. We both watched silently for a long moment. Then we looked at each other and I said, “Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?” He said, “It is! I’m going to get my sister.” By the time he and his sister got back to the window, though, the mother deer had caught wind of something and ushered her fawns back into the underbrush. Playtime and showtime were over.

 My pull-ups had never gone by so painlessly before.

 (The above photo is a snapshot by Guy J. Sagi from Flickr. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me.)