You’d think finding an elephant would be easy.

In the early 2000s, I went to Zambia for 2 weeks.  I was sent by my local chapter of the League of Women Voters to act as ambassador and trainer to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) focused on women’s empowerment and voting rights.

My host, Mary, told me wonderful stories.  One was about being in a car, traveling in Zambia and getting stuck.  There’s really only one road outside of the capital and everything else you’re on your own.  She tells of being broken down in the brush and hearing the elephants, but she never saw them because, broken vehicle or not, she made it back to the main road (getting home:  another story.  There’s no AAA in Zambia!).

Later during the visit she took me to see Victoria Falls (indescribable and the rainfall from the falls killed my camera so I have no pictures).  On the way we stopped at a game reserve and we saw the results of the elephants – they pretty much go where they want and leave a trail of poop and broken plants, i.e. trees, behind.  Word had it they had crossed over into Zimbabwe.

It seems one can be in the midst of elephants and never see them.  Maybe not want to see them.

There are three ways to find elephants if you really want to catch up with them:  follow the poop and broken stuff at ground level, climb a tree to get the big picture, or hire a guide. The guide will do what has worked for her before:  follow the poop or climb a tree.

One of the first questions to ask yourself on your trek is:  “Do I really really want to catch up with an elephant?  Or do I just want to see one?  From afar.” Or: “Do I want to touch and live with this elephant, become one with her and deal with all the things one does with a wild elephant.”  Or: “Do I want to catch this elephant and tame her, and how and what does that mean?”   These are important questions, and there are no  right or wrong answers.  It is more about getting to know your heart’s desire, and, once knowing that, what the next step is.

Next comes: “How do I like to learn about the world?”  Do you like to meander, to gather puzzle pieces and fit them together?  Do you like to conjecture and theorize, take byways as well as highways.  Do you enjoy knowing what the elephant had for dinner and for breakfast and do you delight in learning how to fix what is broken to open up possibilities for yourself?  Do you like epic poetry?  Do heights make your stomach turn over?

Or do you like getting to where ever “there” is at the moment so that you can savor “there.”  Perhaps a short hike on the ground, then up the tree because mazes aren’t your thing and an overview tells you more about what you want to know than the details, which can be left for someone else to do and then brief you.  You like haiku: sweet, to the point and a surprise “aha” of a twist at the end.  Heights give you a chance to try your latest set of wings.

As for guides: they know their areas of expertise and can share that with you.  If you’re a tree climber, a ground explorer can help fill in the blanks; you’re a ground explorer?  The tree climbing guide can show your way by pointing in a direction you cannot yet see.

However you get to your elephant, what you do upon finding her is entirely up to you.  Or maybe a beginning point for the next adventure.

My elephant’s name is Art.  I’m a “climb in the tree, soar around a bit if necessary, become one with her” kind of gal.  What’s your elephant’s name and how are you finding her?

(Many thanks to Wylde Woman Anne Rutherford who sent me off thinking about elephants over coffee this morning!)

Wylde Women’s Wisdom:

The great adventure of the creative life lies not only in the territory seen but in the fact that much of what we see has not been seen before…The artist does not see as others see.  Julia Cameron