Parable of the Day

A red-tailed hawk smashed into the side of the house this morning. We were in the living room, waiting for our morning coffee (and waiting and waiting and waiting) and I was also busy working on an ad campaign with an advertiser when all of a sudden we heard a loud BANG.

*long silence*

“What was that?” my husband asked.

I look up at him, surprised, from my computer. He usually doesn’t notice all the noises in the house. We have a LOT of noises. Yipping Yorkies, the cockatiel, traffic from outside, four kids ramming around upstairs in a creaky old house….. there are always lots of crazy noises and after a while you shut them out. So I took note of his notice. It must be a big deal if he asks.

“I don’t know.”

*short silence*

Husband gets up out of his chair and calls to the son in the other room (dining room).

“Hey, what was that noise?”

“I don’t know,” son says in between mouthfuls of cereal.

Husband goes out to the dining room and looks out the window. He walks back into the living room and tells me, “A red-tailed hawk slammed into the window in the dining room! It looks likes he’s injured, he’s just laying in the snow!” Husband starts to lace up his boots.

“Oh no!” I get up from my chair and rush out to the dining room. As I near the window, the son is standing in front of it.

“Ooo- there he goes!” We watch as a flurry of tawny-brown feathers filled the view and flew away. I didn’t get a very big look at him, rats. I wanted to. I DID think of grabbing the camera this time, unlike my previous failure. But a hawk is a LOT faster than a stove!

We marveled that the bird even HIT the house. Red-tailed hawks, don’t they have good vision and control? Why would he hit the house?? Is he going blind?

I then noticed rabbit tracks in the snow. I’ll betcha the hawk was looking for a tasty breakfast and the rabbit scurried to the side of the house for shelter. As the hawk was diving, he must have gotten too close to the house and crashed into it.

As I walked away from the window, I thought, “Hoh boy, do I feel like that hawk, today.” Here you are, sailing the big open blue looking for breakfast, and then WHAM you hit a solid obstruction at 30 mph. Knocks you out. That’s how I’ve felt for the past 2 months. It seems like these great big huge obstructions have entered my view, my path. I feel like I’ve slammed into a building. I’m flailing in the snow, unable to get up and terrified that something bigger will come along and eat me….

There’s a happy ending, though. The hawk finally came to his senses, rose up like a Phoenix, and soared again to his wide open spaces. The saga continues…