Your Spirit Animal & "Mansfield Park"...One of Jane Austen's Best...Or Not
Do you choose your spirit animal, or does it choose you?
In her wonderfully life-affirming Substack, Prue Batten spoke of recently encountering her Spirit Animal, a sea eagle, during a difficult time.
Seeing this creature, she had the immediate sense that things would be okay. In her essay, she posed the question, “I wonder, do any of you have spirit animals?”
I always thought mine would be a dog but there’s something elemental and spiritual in a wild animal that I find difficult to explain. —Prue Batten, Knots in the String
This really made me think. Perhaps it’s no coincidence we have wild creatures for Spirit Animals. When you think about it, at a heart and soul level, we humans need to connect with nature for our physical and spiritual well-being.
I’d never really thought I had one myself, but upon reading Prue’s words, it came to me. Oh yes! I know what my Spirit Animal is!
I seldom see coyotes. Although we hear our neighborhood pack yipping several times a week, I’ve never seen one around our place.
But a couple of years ago, I had an extraordinary experience with a coyote… It felt like an authentic connection, which I related in my Little Farm in the Henhouse book.
One summer morning, I was cycling about two miles from our place. I was out on the main road, one that’s often busy with pickup trucks, campers, and the occasional massive gravel truck.
I chanced to see a coyote emerge from the brush onto the roadway.
The coyote saw me too. Instead of vanishing immediately—as the apex predators generally do around here—it simply trotted ahead of me. Right in the middle of the road.
I cycled slowly, so I wouldn’t startle it, and I was rewarded: the wild animal just went on its merry way, about 50 feet ahead.
The coyote kept up its jaunty pace, occasionally turning around to look at me. Interestingly, all this time no other vehicles came along. It was just me on my bike and the coyote.
This went on for about 3/4 of a mile, before the coyote melted into into the woods. But the experience stuck with me.
Then last week, I saw the tawny-gray flash of a coyote’s tail just beyond our fence.
This was shortly after reading Prue’s essay—and I intuitively decided: my Animal is a coyote!
But wait…
One week ago, I experienced a close-up sighting of a different wild creature—one my husband John and I know well.
Just outside our fence, this animal was sitting quite leisurely out in the open, enjoying the sunshine.
That’s when I wondered: Do you choose your Spirit Animal, or does it choose you?
Which brings us to…
You know all about our black bear intruder from last year, related in great detail in this space!
It’s worth noting that I never felt connected to this bear. At all. Just frightened at its boldness (at first). Then after the bear’s dozen-plus intrusions into our yard, simply annoyed.
Still, this troublesome critter made such an impression on me that I put together a mini-ebook all about my bear experiences (which I plan to publish Summer 2025).
All through our years in the Foothills—until a year ago last May, when I caught this bear in our shop—my bear sightings were infrequent: once every year or two.
But this spring, I’ve seen one bear after another!
The day after I published my June newsletter (with an update about our neighborhood bear) I saw the bear again on our quiet, woodsy lane—the second sighting in a week.
Then two weeks ago, cycling on the main road, I was thinking idly that I really should publish my little bear book—and that instant, a bear appeared just across the road!
It headed back into the woods as soon as it saw me. But the fact that it showed up at exactly the same moment I was thinking about my book…well, that really gave me pause.
Here’s why.
The last few weeks, I’d been fretting about a family situation. Even losing sleep over it. Yes, I know fretting gets you nowhere…but I just couldn’t see a solution.
One week ago, I was so tired of worrying and wringing my hands, I was all set to take the bull by the horns and make a stand.
With all this weighing on my mind, I looked out our back sliding glass door, into the clearing on the other side of our fence.
There, sat a bear. Dollars to doughnuts, it was our bear. The bear that had been causing all the trouble.
But instead of shouting at it—black bears hate loud noises—to frighten it away, I whispered to John, “Get the camera!”
He hurried to his office to grab his Canon—and his door squeaked. The bear immediately stood up and ambled into the brush.
I had an entirely novel reaction. I wasn’t frustrated that we hadn’t had a chance to scare the bejeezus out of the bear. And I wasn’t disappointed we’d missed our chance get it to not only go away but stay away.
It was that seeing the bear, I felt a sense of…I don’t know. Peacefulness.
That somehow, everything would be all right.
What’s interesting is not that I saw the bear…But that three hours later, I received an email that resolved the family matter without conflict or confrontation. Reading it, all my worries dissolved.
But something else bear-related was going on inside me. A major mindset change.
After all the break-ins last year, especially with the strawberry damage, John and I resolved to bear-proof our fence in the spring. (Electrifying it, as the Fish & Wildlife officer recommended.)
But food gardening and homesteady life being what it is, we never got around to the job.
A quick history: for 18 years at our homestead, my strawberry crop was one I really put my heart and soul into. The planting, the tending, the netting—oh, the extreme netting!—the harvesting, the prepping for next year’s crop.
Through this past winter, my worries intensified: that we’d have a replay of last summer. The bear was going to destroy our fences, and eat the crop I’d tended so carefully.
Yet as my strawberries ripened this spring, and I kept seeing all these bears, something gradually came to me.
Let it go. Let them go.
My mindset change was actually three smaller epiphanies:
It would not be the end of the world if the bear got into the strawberries. Or even if it even ruined the crop.
The wildlife here in our little corner of the Foothills is part of why we live here, why we love our place so much. So wild critters eating our crops is inevitable!
After seeing all these bears this spring, all of them close encounters, I completely lost my fear of them.
That’s why, when I saw the bear last week, just a few dozen feet away, basking in the sun, I felt…all right about it.
And that apparently, I do have a Spirit Animal. It’s not a coyote.
So I ask you, did I choose my Spirit Animal, or did it choose me? It felt like the bear made the choice.
What wildlife encounters have lingered in your memory? What is your spirit Animal?
Mansfield Park: One of Jane Austen’s Best…Or Not?
I finished Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park today. The book turned out to be quite a roller-coaster!
I had read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion many times; I’d also watched all the movies and mini-series over and over. And over!
But hadn’t yet ventured into Mansfield Park.
I recall a film adaptation from about 20 years ago, and if memory serves, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Nor did I remember anything about the plot.
Still, I was determined to make my way through all Austen’s worthy works. (Northanger Abbey? Well, I dunno if it is or not.)
The four Austen novels didn’t hold many surprises; I’d watched all the Austen screen adaptations before reading them.
I had to wonder why there hadn’t been umpteen adaptations of MP, like all the other Austen novels. Or a made-up version of it, like the recent Sanditon mini-series! Was it like, a bad story?
I needed to find out!
Plus, I recently saw Mansfield Park on a prominent author’s “best books” list, which made me more curious than ever.
I obtained the well-worn paperback from our public library, and in the spirit of discovery, I decided to approach MP without any prior knowledge or preconceptions.
So I deliberately avoided the 20-page Introduction in the edition I’d borrowed.
My goal was to read the novel with fresh, newbie eyes.
Mansfield Park had a bit of a slow start for me. I finally figured that for my reading taste, Jane had introduced too many characters and convoluted family relationships in the opening chapters.
After getting the characters squarely in my mind, I made it to page 161—had to return the book to the library!
As soon as the book was available again, I picked up where I left off—and for the next 200 pages the story was full of twists and turns.
Other love interests came along for the two main protagonists, shy Fanny and upright Edmund. But at the same time, it was obvious they were meant for each other.
Yet there was so much suspense: with so many obstacles, both interior and exterior, how on earth would Jane A. get Fanny and Edmund together?
I tore through the last 80 pages, and the days I was out in the garden until dark, and didn’t have time to read, I couldn’t wait to get back to the story. Because I honestly had no idea how Jane would work her romantic magic.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I did feel our dear Miss A. took a few shortcuts to a happily-ever-after. But at least the villain of the story—Fanny’s mean-spirited aunt—gets a bit of a comeuppance.
Anyway, if you’ve read Mansfield Park, I would love to hear your take on it—the novel and the ending!
I appreciate all of you for reading Little Farm Writer, and I’d love to hear from you!
To share your thoughts, it’s easy to leave a comment ❤️ I’d also be delighted to connect with you one-on-one—just reply to this email. Thank you so much for being here!
Warmly,
~Susan, from the Foothills
Susan, JA and black bears, oh my! 1) I agree about lengthy over-analyzed introductions to classics. They’re not classics for nothing, and I want my own personal journey through them. That said, MP is an outlier, but Austin is Austin. 2) My exposure to wild animals has been very limited. But each of my dog(s) and I have bonded in personal, mutual, and often, say, “supernatural” ways. I’d look in his (later her) eyes, and the connection was unmistakable. Thanks again for the fun read. ~ Dick
Susan, fantastic post. How interesting that two animals presented themselves to you as spirit animals - Coyote and Bear.
Interesting too the minute we approach our interaction with wild creatures with calm, that things change. I think you would enjoy reading Tom Ryan's two books so much, as he and his dogs had such enlightened interactions with a bear he called Aragorn and who arrived frequently in their garden and often slept on their porch. No angst or animosity - just sharing gentle moments.
I think you and your husband are amazing to continue to live and love life in the country with all its challenges. We've been watching Alone USA and my heaven, the bears, mountain lions and wolves that the contestants encounter are terrifying!
I also enjoyed your comments on Jane Austen. I haven't read Mansfield Park and you've encouraged me to seek it out. If I can find the right narrator, I may listen to it in audio.
Thank you for writing and for your support for my little account. XXXX