Moonlight Elk

Christie Green learned to hunt in order to complement the food she grew in her garden. As an act of practical agency this fulfilled her needs, yet a restlessness stirred within. She longed for a life defined by something deeper than cultural norms. Could she travel beyond the supposed domain of women and venture into the wild, where men were said to prevail? Here, hunting in the wild, the moon cycles through her, rising and falling, whispering messages from the dark side. Rather than circle the hot insistence of a masculine sun, Green begins to attune to the more elusive, mysterious murmuration of the moon. Animals and dreams, lunar partners, choreograph Green through time and space. She longs to dream, toil, live, and love at the edges of the fertile ecotones where she can withdraw inward, retreat like an animal into hiding, and then come into full, radiant view on her own terms. Green sheds the burdens of her domestic self and witnesses the animals defying reason as they walk her into their world, ambling her along, straddling night and day, waking and sleeping. Through them, definitions of gender dissolve and boundaries blur. In the process, Green eclipses western society's definitions of her as a woman, mother, lover, and entrepreneur, courageously birthing her own independence through a profound connection to the animals and the places they call home.