Did I Kill a Deer Last Night?

The Butterfly Effect

Last night

On my way to bed

I saw a deer

In the back yard

I moved quietly

With the lights off

So as not to disturb it

I like to encourage their visits

I realized as I was watching it

That the food had cooled

And that it was ready

to be put in the refrigerator

I couldn’t avoid the light coming on

When I opened the fridge door

The deer’s head popped up instantly

She was watching me

I moved as calmly as I could

But when I looked back out she was gone.

From now on for the rest of its life

That deer will be somewhere

other than it would have been

If I wouldn’t have startled it

in an instant

Its path was changed forever

This deviation

No matter how slight it was

Has changed the deer’s path

Will this minor change

Put her in the path of a hunter’s bullet?

Will it miss being hit by a car?

Will an entire families lives be lost

When they swerve

to keep from hitting that deer?

Did my interaction

Change her path

so that tonight

a predator sees her,

stalks her, and kills her?

Maybe some child

will see their mom hit this deer

and the child’s future

will turn from convenience store worker

with a drug problem

to a veterinarian/humanitarian

that gives birth

to the next Mother Teresa  

There is no answer

But the truth is

Everything that we do

And every life that we touch

Has a chance of altering something

It has a chance of changing

the outcome of the world

What if someone in Germany

wouldn’t have called in sick one day

many years ago

and they would have

ran over little Adolf

on his way to school.

Or better yet

What if someone

would have shown little Adolf

or little Jeffery Dahmer

an act of kindness

at a young age

could either of their paths

have been changed

we will never know

but I think that the answer is yes.