From a Lofty Vantage Point

How do the birds make great sky circles . . .
They fall and falling they are given wings.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Persian Sufi mystic (1207-1273)

Along the final leg of today's morning commute, I chanced to meet up with a magnificent hawk perched on the very tip of a pine tree. I stopped in my tracks, pulled out my phone to take a photo, took a few more steps forward and took another photo. As I continued this stop/start rhythm up the slope and past the tree, she kept an eye on me but never moved from her vantage point. My wayside guardian considered the situation from a higher perspective and knew she had nothing to worry about.

The morning's frigid temperatures necessitated inflating one's plumes and probably accounts for 50% of this regal creature's size. I felt similarly inflated inside cumbersome but warm layers of coat, sweater, scarf, mitts, wool socks and boots. In the future, I will be watchful for my feathered wayside guardian and will aspire to her lofty outlook.