Most Alive Monday: Wild Love

"such wild love-
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure." -Mary Oliver

Satchel's first animal love was the giraffe. "Laaaaa Nas", was what he called them when he was learning to speak. Long Necks is what he was trying to say. Over the last two years, I thrifted some wooden giraffe beads to use as holiday ornaments for our xmas tree and we purchased a felted giraffe for our tree in 2007. Although his big beautiful heart made space for new wild loves, we decided to take him to our local zoo for the Breakfast With Giraffes event!

(He was beaming on the tram to the event)

The feeding station had to be closed due to some mud so we had to feed them through a fence...a disappointment, but still a lovely encounter with the purple prehensile tongues.

Afterward, Satch rode this gentle and quiet carousel twice! (His first experience on a carousel that was too fast and too loud rendered him a tiny horizontal blur in striped leggings.)


We visited elephants, lions, a cheetah, some fabulous chimps and then we brushed a goat until...

he smiled!

We discovered a magical GIANT hobbit-like tree slide in which you climb a stairs within the trunk and then slide down through the fallen log...

After a late lunch of brick oven pizza at Isabella's, we went home exhausted.  Before bed we read these two books...and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Animal Faces is a book about observation. The book is a photo mosaic of the faces of 21 different individuals from 24 different species. The best way to describe this book is to quote the author, "By looking at animals in this careful way, you will find yourself loving animals even more than you did before".

The Girl and the Elephant, simply put, is a very charming story that celebrates the bonds of friendship.


*About Most Alive Monday: I've decided to make at least one "most alive choice" each day and post my favorite each Monday. This, of course, is to motivate me to consciously "live juicy"! I hope you'll join me and share your "most alive moment" in the comments section so we may inspire each other.

You may also post photos of your "most alive moments" in my most alive flickr pool! (If you post a photo in pool, be sure to include your link in the comment)