I stopped dead in my tracks, an awestruck expression on my face. Standing in front of me was a small pack of wolves all staring straight at me. I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute. I couldn’t quite tell if in this moment I felt terrified or mesmerized. These wolves before me are magnificent. They stand together proud and strong and eye me down with a curious gaze. It seems they can’t quite decide what I am and what they want to do with me. I stare back at them still as a statue. “How am I going to get myself out of this mess” I think to myself. The wolf at the front of the pack, a well aged white wolf takes a tentative step forward and stiffs the air. She looks at me like she can see straight into my soul. I can sense her strength and wisdom as she studies me. After a moment she turns around and trots off into the woods, signaling for the rest of her pack to follow. As I watch her go I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. I couldn’t yet comprehend what had just happened to me. When the wolf stepped forward at me I was sure I was a goner. I continued to ponder my experience as I began to walk back home. As I was exiting the tree line near my house I could hear a magnificent howling from far off in the distance. It was as if the wolves had been sending me off. I didn’t know it at the time. But the wolf that I had met was the spirit of that forest. And she had granted me safe passage in her forest.