I have been fortunate enough to walk among wolves in the Canadian forests; to enter a world that remains unchanged for millennia - an ancient, timeless, and primitive realm where one slip from a small slip from a rock ledge can end in your death. This is wilderness, and this is the measure of wolves as a species: to be born, struggle to survive, feel pain, express joy, and eventually die.
There are import lessons to be learned from wolves; lessons that I strive to incorporate into my daily life; lessons that only a creature who strives on instinct and energy could teach us.
First: feel no guilt. This does not mean forget about the wrongs you commit. It means, do not dwell on that which you cannot control, or that which you must do to survive. The wolf does not feel guilty for taking down the baby moose or elderly doe. It simply hunts, kills and feeds to carry on. These is no remorse... There is no disdain.
Second: have fun.Do not be afraid to make a fool of your self. Do not be afraid to be silly. Do not think that you are so important, that that you can allow yourself the rightr to be a child again. This wolf I photographed in "Ecstasy," taught me this.
Third: To gain some degree of control over your life, you must be willing to give up control, as I learned from the elder wolf in "The Greeting.'" When the time is right, the possession of that control will come back to you. It will be yours again.
Fourth: When you love, love to the utmost of your ability. Love unselfishly. Love with respect. Love with devotion, For that which we call "love," can be snatched away from us in a blink of an eye.
Finally: There is no equalizer than death. Share the best of yourself with your friends, with your family, with strangers. And know that you belong to something larger than yourself - the "global pack." the human family. For when you fail - and you will fail - there will be others around you to help pick you up. There will be others to say, "yes, I have been there too."
All these things - in 35 years- I have seen wolves: in a species, who act like us, lives in "families;" yet, who unlike us: do not gey divorced; do not abuse or abandon their children; and do not complain about their failed relationships to other wolves.
Own a piece of the "WOLF EMPIRE"