Be the bison!

While I love dogs, the bison, what we call buffalo, is my spirit animal. I’ve known it since I was too young to actually know that. They are strong and stoic, peaceful yet formidable, big but also fast and agile, matriarchal and live within an intricate social structure and their physical being is nearly entirely useful posthumous. They live an efficient life and leave no waste and were recently made the official mammal of the United States. But surely one characteristic of bison is the most remarkable.

“Bison are the only animals on earth that turn toward a snowstorm rather than run from it. They instinctively understand that charging into the storm will eventually lead them out more quickly. While it may be challenging to navigate through the snow, they recognize that enduring this temporary discomfort is the most efficient path to finding shelter and safety. There’s a great lesson to be learned from the bison. We often tend to procrastinate and fear big upcoming tasks or challenges that come our way. But repressed feelings and  problems often grow bigger in the end. Facing storms may be challenging but ultimately it is the quickest way to overcome them.” 

The reason this is remarkable to me is that when I was in high school my family road-tripped across the country from Illinois to Colorado to ski during spring break. Anyone who has made that trip knows two things. First, that the strip of road through Nebraska seems endless and is filled with fences to keep the cows on their owner’s land instead of the road. And secondly, that a spring snowstorm can come out of seemingly nowhere, at any time. This trip was one of those, the kind when a snowstorm was making the road nearly impassable. In fact, our family station wagon was the last car allowed through on I80 before the road was closed to further traffic. My dad drove slowly and carefully and the scenery passed as though in slow motion. The snow flew in all directions and bits of ice filled the frigid air. And then I saw it. Cows were covered in ice and had frozen to death against the wire fences, perhaps once perceived to be protection, that separated them from the road. Had they even tried to find their way to safety, to survival? Had they chosen to stay in place and try to wait the storm out? Had they just given up and literally stopped living, frozen in place? It was horrific, an image that haunts me to this day.

That’s why I was so deeply affected when I heard about how bison head into the storm because they know that eventually they will cross through and be on the other side it. They sometimes struggle against the force of the storm, head down, covered in snow and ice, yet they intentionally, methodically and unwaveringly raise their leg, take the next step and trudge on. And that’s it, that’s how we get to the other side of the storm. If we don’t move head long into the storm, we risk getting frozen in place. And while it may not result in physical death, it’s not living.

Moving forward is the only way to get to the other side of the storm. The first bison to brave, yes it takes courage, the storm paves the path for each to follow. There are many who have faced the storm head long and now offer hands outreached to show you the way to other side of the storm you now face.

So, unlike the cows who run away from the storm or worse yet stay frozen in place, be like the bison and charge head long into your snowstorms.