"There are things your can't reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier……."
~excerpt, Mary Oliver,'Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?

Yesterday started out to be like most other days. Rise early, read the paper accompanied by my morning cup of coffee, a little bit of this, breakfast, a little bit of that. Good morning and goodbyes to my husband and son, and then off to the office. Driving along between the Twin Cities, listening to the radio, half-listening really, not noticing much of anything that passed by me.

And then at the lip of the Mendota Bridge, my eyes were drawn skyward and there it was. An eagle, soaring above the bridge, floating on the gray mist of a Minnesota winter morning. It hovered a moment and then positioned itself to fly right across my on-coming path. I saw the definition of its feathers, the white of its head, the golden yellow of its beak, its strong, beady eye. I felt the fullness of its presence.

And just like that, what had been ordinary became extraordinary. I had been blessed by the flight of an eagle. How could anything else in my day go wrong or be better? Later in the day, as I took a quick trip to a sandwich shop for lunch, I was once again not completely present to my surroundings. Turning a corner onto a snowy street, the red flash of a cardinal swooped over my path. He flew close to the ground, seeming to say:"Look at me! Look at me!" And so I did. Brilliant red against the whiteness of nearly everything else visible.

So what started out as a typical Tuesday morning became a day to be blessed by birds. I began to wonder what these winged ones might be trying to tell me. What might their offering be to someone bundled up in down and wool, now entrenched in the throes of winter? I'm still reflecting on their gift of wonder, of beauty, of wildness. Somehow the mere memory of their presence lifts me above the frozen landscape. Maybe that is gift enough.