The hawk’s call is distinct, not very melodic. It’s a rather shrill, hoarse keening that’s hard to miss. Hence, it usually gets my attention, often when I’m at work, most recently on the day after our first real snow of the season, the kind of snow that creates a silent winter wonderland, a silence that allows a hawk’s cry to really stand out.
I heard it and got up from my desk going from window to window looking for the producer of the command for attention without success. This happened several times before I finally spotted her, all puffed up to protect herself against the frigid cold, feasting on her prey beneath a snow-covered pine.
It was a day when I hadn’t wanted to go to work. There was the snow, the cold, the violence over the past weekend: the shootings at Brown University and Bondi Beach, the tragic murder of the Reiners, all requiring a large dose of compassion as sorrow and outrage take their own course while we try to process what isn’t really possible to process. The pile-on to what we are already trying to hold is heavy, wearying for the heart.
There are friends and family who are on challenging health journeys or are worried about someone they love on such a journey, those who have lost someone dear, others who have lost their livelihoods. How does one shine the positive light and healing energy in so many directions? How do we disburse it proportionately?
The hawk in the snow was a reminder for me that nature’s rhythms not only carry on but show the way. Any given day or moment, some of us will be stronger than others, able to carry a little more weight, called upon to stoke our own embers so we can spark or keep the flame going in others. The same has been done for each of us by friends, family, doctors, nurses, or brief encounters with someone we don’t know who was put in our path to offer just the right words or deed in a timeless dance of sharing the load and carrying the light.
May you find and receive what you need to have the love and capacity, the strength and compassion, and most of all the spirit and heart to keep the dance in motion.
Divine Ready 