Nature, sun, warmth, and bike riding in town are interesting combinations for a deeply spiritual experience. Well, perhaps not deep but profound. Maybe not profound but starling. Anyway, it was another gift from the Great Spirit. A hawk flew right in front of my path on a normally busy street with a Straßenbahn track in the middle. At that moment I was alone on the road and no one that I could notice – noticed – except me. This is a pretty amazing experience since the hawk was less than 2 meters off the ground and flew exactly in front of me as I rode down the street on my bicycle. It felt as if this great bird’s wing touched me as it went past.
It all happened so fast that I could only figure it out in the seconds after I witnessed everything. The hawk was holding in his talons a live pigeon. As he passed about an arms-length in front of me the pigeon was firmly in his grip. Perhaps my presence also startled the hawk for in the next second the pigeon managed to free himself and flew over the fence of the house on the opposite side of the street. The hawk did not follow the pigeon but flew high up over the three-story house and continued over the hill until I lost sight of him. Remember, all this happened in just a few seconds.
At the spot where the hawk and pigeon passed in front of me, there were 20 – 30 feathers scattered about, probably all the pigeons. I peeked over the fence but not see the pigeon. The pigeon seemed to escape certain death. The hawk is probably used to this sort of thing. It was a great experience to see this struggle and flight to freedom. Everything was played out with a detached reality, not man’s of course, but natures. This is how nature operates. If only humans can accept this simple fact.
23 Aug. 2000 Heidelberg
