The taxi was going to be late. No bus, still no car. I need to be elsewhere and I’m stuck. Could have stayed in bed a bit longer…Didn’t have to get up before dawn… but the cold had woken me, even huddled beneath the duvet.
The morning is cold, frosty and with that indefinable something in the air that says this is temporary, this calm. Maybe it is something in the light… the clear dawn is not reassuring somehow. Vaguely ominous without any obvious reason. Maybe it is just me. It is one of those days.
My thoughts are churning through the mire of worldly concerns as I mull through everything that is on it today. I am, I admit, not in the best frame of mind as I pull on the fleece and dive, head down, to the post-box on the corner.
A keening startles me from my reverie, far closer, far louder than I’ve ever heard it before.
I look up. The morning wears the wings of a red kite as it wheels just six feet above me.
I can see every feather, see the glint in its eye as it watches me watching. I can even recognise the markings… tell it as one I have seen before, wheeling over the garden. There is a connection. I feel it in every fibre of my being. Its presence seems to know me. For a moment out of time, I know it too. Until the tears make it too difficult to see.
The message is clear… There are no answers on the concrete path.
I need to look beyond this limited horizon. Look outwards from within, not inwards from cracks in the fragile shell.
I need to rise.
To look up.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
So beautiful, so sad – and, ultimately, so liberating, Sue. It seems that this January is bringing the forceful cracking of the egg, so that the little chicks we are have to, as you put it, look beyond this limited horizon. I salute your bravery and fine spirit. xxxx
LikeLike
I’ve been cracked a long time, Ali….:)
But.. thank you xxx
LikeLike
This tells me two things about you. First, you are always open to beauty around or even above you. Second, you take your camera to check the mail?
LikeLike
Mea culpa.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Sue, this is so magical! Hope you’re day works out okay or even better than that!
LikeLike
I could certainly do with a wand being waved over the car 🙂
LikeLike
Sending magical Irish wishes your way!
LikeLike
That should do it 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The first paragraph really explains my morning. Hope it ends up having a similar encounter. Haven’t seen the hawks that live around here since last spring.
LikeLike
Must be something in the sir, Charles.
LikeLike
Awesome, Sue. I wonder if the bird recognized your red hair – or were you wearing a hat?
LikeLike
The hair is no longer red, Noelle.. I let it grow back to its natural state. So I am rather less of a visible beacon these days.
Purple has its attractions though… 😉
LikeLike
I was once checked out by a bird of prey when I was trekking along the Colca Canyon in Peru. I’d waited for them all day, but there was no sign. Then at dusk I thought I’d better be going. It was still quite a walk to the next village and I needed to find a room for the night. Then they came, a pair of them. One flew low right over my head, I could see every feather on its wings. Its wingspan was longer than I am tall (but I’m only little). It flew around me in a circle, then followed its mate. It was only then I remembered to fumble in my backpack for my camera, by which time it had become a tiny black speck in a deep blue sky. I think they were condors.
LikeLike
The kites have a wingspan as wide as I am tall too ( ditto). Amazing feeling, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a lovely piece. I feel like I live mornings like this more often than not. Thank you for sharing.
LikeLike
Mornings, once the dawn is over, are not always godd 🙂 This one was special though.
LikeLike
You have done it again, and I cannot speak. I felt every word though, possibly too much…
LikeLike
It just felt right to share that moment. I can’t be the only one to whom the kite was speaking.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Anita & Jaye Dawes.
LikeLike