The wide angle lens

This morning's stunning, dramatic close encounter with what I now think was a sharp-shinned hawk has stayed with me all day. Two crows making a racket, the hawk out of my sight until it swooped past my parlor window, I saw the long tail that looked striped, and white belly underside, and it was smallish, so that's my best guess. Regardless, it's a wonder I was opening the curtains at just that exact time, or did the crows' racket draw me to the windows in the first place?

Once while walking along College Avenue in downtown happy valley at the start of a semester I was privy to a mesmerizing hawk encounter. On my way to a new English class outside of the Health and Human Development building a Red Tail dove in front of me and onto a smallish rabbit that was in a grassy space between the bushes and the building. As I walked around the bush, I could see the hawk working the rabbit, its sharp talons, beak being utilized in all the ways they are meant to be. I couldn't look away, and why should I? After what seemed a long time, but not long enough, this bird of prey drama a gift, I realized I was going to be late for this new, first class. I went inside and past the window where the hawk and rabbit were still embroiled. After another minute or so, the hawk, with the ragged rabbit in its talons, took off to somewhere out of my sight, and I moved on, breathless. Into the class, now 5 or so minutes late. The discussion turned to semantics and I could tell right off that this professor with a long history at PSU was going to be a bore. He would ask questions of students, and then cut into their answers with what he thought was wit and finesse. He did the same to me, I don't even remember the answer I gave, or the question. But as I sat there, listening, still vibrating from the energy of hawk and rabbit, it was clear this was not the class for me, and the hawk's dynamic appearance presaged a relationship that was not necessary for me to pursue. The mixed media sculpture class that I picked up instead was a delightful relationship, filled with many dynamic flights of fancy. (Yes, I really did use the term, flights of fancy, because I am corny and can't help myself sometimes.)

Another hawk with a something something, a dynamic and breathtaking experience. I am grateful for these majestic moments that take me out of the insanity that passes for reality, and smack dab into the center of the real world. Hawks and crows and rabbits, every time.