I’m sitting at my desk writing a court report. It’s a report about a badly damaged family and, quite frankly, there is nothing nice about doing a report like this. I sit alone in my office wondering how people can do such things to each other.
Then I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Strolling past my window are a momma and child… only this is a momma moose and her calf. The slowly stroll the length of my fence, occasionally nibbling on some tree branches. They are in no hurry. They are still fat and with shiny coats from a summer of feasting. The cold weather that bothers me is of no importance to them. The sun is out. The food is free. Some silly humans have shoveled all the snow into a pile so they don’t have to plod through deep drifts. Life is good.
And as I watch them wend their way up my street, back to the Anchorage Wildlife Refuge not far from where I sit, I think that no matter how cold it gets or how much snow is dumped by the heavens, it’s moments like these that make it all worthwhile.