Hawk Shadows

Today, I walked and walked and walked and walked. Sometimes alone, sometimes with Mocha, sometimes with a fellow seeker on retreat.

It's cold. The wind has a bite to it as it blows fiercely down the meadow. I lean my body headfirst into the bitterness and put one foot in front of the other. Hawk shadows cross my path. I step over them so as not to disturb their hunt, their struggle to harness the wind.

Even as trees become bare, flowers shrivel as temperatures drop, wildlife and birds tuck themselves away...there is beauty here. In it's starkness, the essential exposes its resilient glory. I want to press it against my spine, let it flow inside my body and sustain me.