After I Packed Up

In January I went to Lynde Shores and sat in the snow for three hours, waiting for a shot that never came.

That is how it goes sometimes. You sit. You wait. Nothing. Eventually I packed everything up and got ready to leave.

That is when the hawk landed. Right in front of me, close enough that I could not believe it. I dropped my bags and got the camera out as fast as I could.

What nobody sees in this photo is what that morning actually was. It was my first time out with a camera after a year in bed, recovering from a tibial plateau fracture. It was the first time I left the cane behind and walked on my own two feet. The surgeons had told me there was a good chance I would not walk again.

I was tired that day in a way that went all the way down. It had been a hard year, and not just for me. My family carried it too.

There is a Japanese idea I like, that beautiful things are beautiful partly because they do not last. The hawk stayed a moment, and then it was gone. You just have to be there, and be ready, when they come.

I do not let things stop me. That day, I did not.