The sun blasts in the window and wakes me up at 6:00. I lay there for a minute with my eyes scrunched tight and then I decide to make use of the time. I can escape for a few minutes into the sunlight before my day officially starts. I sneak out of the house while my family sleeps. I walk up the hill to the cell phone tower field. I make my way to the peak of the hill so I can sit and look down at the Bedford Basin in morning sun.

I come over the crest and a family of deer are standing on the other side in a hollow. They’re the deer our neighbours see whose yards back onto the woods. I’ve seen deer tracks in the snow on the road in the early morning. They are a posse of three females that wander the streets at night munching on people’s tulip bulbs. They hide during the day in the alders in this huge field with the cell phone towers.

They stare at me. They’re tame enough to stay, but wild enough to be cautious. They keep staring and then one gets bored and licks the neck and ears of another who keeps watch. I watch the deer and they watch back, their big ears alert like satellite dishes. The bored one steps around a little, her white tail tall and straight like a car antenae. I sit and look at the water. I become part of a sea of bright sunny green. I’ve found a little space of wildness in an ordinary weekday. I feel blessed.