Seeing What's There
September 4, 2022
It’s nearly sunrise, the sun hasn’t quite crested the hills to my east. There’s fog over the lake because it’s a glorious 57 degrees (F) in August. I’m waiting for the sun to rise and walking slowly along the shore when I hear a crow going crazy and see two birds flying down the lake from the north. The second bird is clearly chasing the first bird which is diving and spinning to avoid contact. They aren’t quite close enough and my mind tells me it’s a crow chasing an osprey - which doesn’t quite compute because I’ve never seen a crow chase an osprey. I take a few photos but I presume they will not come out because the light is too low and they are too far away.
About ten minutes later a few ring-billed gulls and Caspian terns come flying up the lake from the opposite direction. They are screeching like crazy, which is somewhat normal for Caspian terns but unusual for gulls. As they go past I realize something is chasing one of them - or they are chasing it, it’s really hard to tell. My brain tells me it’s an osprey again, but as before this makes no sense. Osprey and gulls generally don’t pay much attention to each other.
The next thing I know two birds are coming towards me, one chasing the other. I can hear the crows so my mind again computes this as a crow chasing an osprey. This time the light is better as the sun has crested the horizon. The birds come closer. As I’m looking at the bird being chased through my lens it suddenly clicks - that’s not an osprey, that’s a peregrine falcon!
At least my brain can find some reason for this, as most birds are unhappy with a peregrine around. For some reason I don’t ask the obvious question - how is a crow keeping up with a peregrine falcon (the fastest bird on Earth)? I just keep shooting the falcon, hoping that my shutter speed is fast enough to get something in focus. The birds disappear down the lake to the south and I, unfortunately, have to leave to go to physical therapy. I would much rather hang out and see if I get any more falcon sightings - or Caspian terns!
It’s only the sixth time in ten years I’ve seen a peregrine falcon at the lake. They have all been in the fall, never quite this early, and always a first-year falcon. This one too is a first-year falcon. It’s not until that evening when I am looking at my photos I realize it wasn’t a crow at all. BOTH birds were peregrine falcons! I have never seen more than one peregrine falcon. Both birds were first-year and I can read the band on one bird’s leg in my photos. I submitted the band to the USGS Banded Bird Encounter Reporting sight and will be curious if I can find out where this young bird was banded.
This encounter reminds me that we often see what we expect to see and when we see something we have no reference for our brain fills in the gaps with the closest thing it can find - often incorrectly.
All week I’ve been thinking about how to move more and continuing to think about how to bring more fun and playfulness into my life. I guess writing about play on labor day weekend is antithetical - we do seem to live in a culture obsessed with work and achievement. I’ve spent my life turning everything into “work” and “working at it”. More and more I want to reverse this process and turn more things into play.
Fall is the season for young birds and animals. There are all kinds of juveniles about - deer, great blue herons, great egrets, hawks, songbirds and apparently peregrine falcons. As I’m watching them I’m mulling over what play really is and how to become more playful in my mind. Just thinking about being playful and playing make me smile. I feel lighter.
This bout of sciatica was brought on (at least in part - but maybe a large part) by being too tight, sitting too much and being too tense. All symptoms of a “serious and responsible” woman. There is a Karen who is playful. She was known as “Aunt Karen” when my nieces and nephews were little. She’s the one who had a putting green in her garage and painted the garage walls with her young nieces and nephews. Leaving that garage was the saddest part of moving out of that house, but perhaps I left a little too much behind in that garage.
In the past I have said there just aren’t many opportunities to be playful, but what if that is just my brain seeing a situation and filling it in with what it already knows? What if there are plenty of opportunities to be playful if I can see what’s really there in the moment and not what I expect to see?
My current answer to playing more and in the process moving more? I am creating a playroom in my basement. I am thinking of things like bean bags, targets, ring toss, a flow rope, juggling balls - but I want to know and please leave comments even or especially if they make you laugh or giggle:
What would you put in a playroom you created for yourself?
I’m bringing in one of my favorite toys which is no longer being used by nieces and nephews. This greatest toy ever created is named “The Climbing Thing” because as a small one you can climb on it and through it. My father built it in the early 70s, my sister and I enjoyed it for many (many) years and I reimagined it with paint 40 years later. The structure is still as solid as it was when we were kids. It will be my inspiration and I’m sure I can create some kind of game with it.
I’ve always found when the universe has a message it will be delivered in many forms and then it swirls around and inspires my own writing. Here are a few of my inspirations this week (and to my fellow writers, I KNOW I missed someone and I’m so sorry!)
Mike Snowden has started season five of “Everything is Amazing” where he is talking about color, and the first post is “A Hundred Million Ways To See”
Katie Hawkins-Gaar (My Sweet Dumb Brain) wrote about play and finding flow here in “Go With The Flow”
Chelsea Willis wrote this lovely post about noticing what makes us feel alive here in “it makes me feel ALIVE”
Sue Ferrera (Tales of a Wayward Yogini) wrote about reclaiming a lost pastime that brings her joy in “Reclaiming Pieces of Me”
Speaking of things that make me happy, reading this article felt like a balm to my soul. I think my grandfather would have appreciated Tulsi Gowind Gowda (and apologies if you can’t read it behind the paywall, perhaps searching her name will yield other articles): “‘Magic in Her Hands.’ The Woman Bringing India’s Forests Back to Life”
“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” (Wayne Dyer)
I’d love to hear how you encourage play and playfulness in your life!
Lovely essay as always. I have that Wayne Dyer quote up on the wall in my office. Amazing what our perception can do to guide us.
I was thinking about this question on my walk this morning--what is play for me? And a woman rode by on her bike--not a mountain bike or a racing bike. Just a cruiser with a basket. And I remembered how much I love riding my own cruiser around town, not for exercise, but for the pure pleasure of it. Especially when I’m going fast downhill, I totally feel like a kid again. Thanks for helping me remember that!