Lately, I’ve been inspired by the fox. I mean, I’ve always loved foxes since childhood, from Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck to Disney’s films The Fox & the Hound & Robin Hood to the more modern Zootopia. At the NH farm, I’d see a fox now & then darting across the field into the wild growth, but they’d tend to look bedraggled & well-worn in life experience in the wild. Of course, I know multiple suburban homesteaders with chicken coops who’d complain about a fox getting into the proverbial hen house, only to find a horror of carnage.

They are predators, after all… But very pretty ones. Isn’t that the way?

In literature & Native American legend, foxes inspire craftiness, slyness, wit, cunning, trickery, & agility. When drawing upon the spirit of the fox totem, one can excel at developing the sharpness of mental skills: Analytical intelligence, power of deduction, observation figure more powerfully in how one deals with daily strategy or bigger initiatives. Given all of my recent work development, creating X-matrices & proforma, program proposal drafts & white papers, I could use drawing upon the fox totem.

Maybe that’s why I adored Disney’s foxy animated Robin Hood, with his cleverly outsmarting Prince John & endless rhino guards, & his winning fair vixen Marian? (Her dancing always won ME over.) Confessedly, I think that’s when I became fascinated with British accents, from my collection of Disney records featuring Mary Poppins & 101 Dalmatians. Of course, Tod played on my heartstrings as well, along with Vixey, who seemed so cool. There’s a certain cache to the image of the fox.

Then there was the fable of The Fox & the Grapes. I could go on & on.

So, I suppose I’ll channel the fox as I continue to focus on my personal growth, learning through introspection & writing, sharing & helping others in their journeys of self-discovery. My aim remains to destigmatize mental health challenges, showing how those with clinical anxiety can maintain high-functioning professional lives, despite stress & high pressure demands. I think it’ll be something that will forever challenge me, in all candor. Finding balance. Not losing myself in intellectual pursuits to avoid feeling negative emotions.

It’s all too easy to hide behind wordplay & mental redirectioning, distractions. Therein lies my work. Tally ho!