As I sat, and looked out at the water, the wind blowing in my face, freezing my brain, I started thinking about the ocean again. Did you know there are species of sea life that can not live at 20 or 30 feet below the surface? They have to be miles below to survive. Still others can’t live below 30 to 50 feet below the surface for too long. There are multiple strata of Sea life that require different things from the ocean and give different things to the ocean so that the circle of life can continue. Each is appointed to his lot.
As I looked at the water and thought, I saw a red-tailed
hawk, there are lots of them out here on the west coast, soaring in one spot. It is alone in the sky to my view. There is no other bird flying overhead, or on
the ground, or even at this moment in the ocean. It is all by itself in this endeavor. It did
not move an inch; it just hovered, freezing cold wind blowing in its
face. It steels itself, immovable, tipping
its wings to keep the wind flowing under it keeping it aloft while tilting
its tail side to side to hold it steady. Six minutes passed and I almost forgot about
the ocean. In an instant its tail tipped
and its head pointed down to the earth.
It dropped like an arrow and deeply sank its talons into the flesh of a
small field mouse. The hawk now readied itself to
eat. Then an amazing thing happened, it was not 2 seconds and in flew a large black Raven to claim some
portion of the prey. It was amazing.
It struck me that here you have in the ocean so many species each living out its life, each is appointed to its place and each cannot live or thrive outside of
its place. And with this backdrop to this scene of one hawk,
willing to risk everything, work hard and brave the storm and claim the prize a Black Raven watched and lay in wait to do what it does best, steal.
