It’s not often that I wish I was someone else,

but take a gander at these photos of Tippi Degre’ and see if you don’t have a touch of communing-with-nature-at-its-most-spectacular envy.

Degre’ had the good fortune to be born to creative, intelligent parents whose careers in film and photography led them to Africa in the early 90s. Her adventures there look like the stuff of (very good) Hollywood movies, but are so much more inspiring because they are real and unstudied.

It is not just the image of this child sitting calmly in the crook of a leopard’s tail while the leopard licks her, or the moment that she was captured riding on the head of an elephant with her eyes closed and her arms outstretched as if to drink in the primal essence of the world that stopped me up short. It is the beatific light and joy on her face, that seems to reflect a clear vision of oneness.

From within this child, an uncorrupted spirit glows. She appears to me to be both the oldest and the youngest of souls, and to embody that which makes human beings special—our capacity, if fear is set aside, for boundless love.

Witnessing these tender moments of her journey makes me want to do better. I offer them to you in hopes they will resonate in some important way for others too.

To see the photos of Tippi Degre growing up in Africa, visit this website.

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Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: huhu33hao via Flickr