The Hawk

Today could have been just another run at the dish. I mean, met a friend, started out at 6:30; now when I say a friend, this friend goes back a long way like so many of my college friends now in the area 10,000 miles away from where we all studied or pretended to in a remote campus. This is a friend who did not want to run even as close as January of this year; she has now run her first half marathon and is signed up for her first full marathon. Often, on weekends, it is thanks to her commitment that I will shake away my lazy blues.

This morning, we decided that we would go the route in the opposite direction. My friend did not really want to do the trail extension so I decided to do the first round with her and do the next by myself. The morning was really cloudy; as we went up the first hill our eyes soaked up the sight of the cloudy skies, lighting up in various hues of red. We continued taking in the beauty around when suddenly on our next downhill we saw the hawk. Now we have seen the hawk multiple times before but it was always away from the trail - on the fence, on a tree, eyeing its surroundings as always. Today we saw the hawk sitting on the trail - this was just simply amazing. I didn't want to stop my descent while enjoying the hawk; then decided to go back up the hill, to observe it more closely; by the time, my friend had stopped en route descending the hill and was taking photos. I decided to whip up my measly phone and take whatever photo I could best capture with it (that is the picture attached to this note). Anyway, this hawk was a real cool dude. He turned around, looked at us, turned back and continued its gaze in the other direction; in the meantime, my friend's phone voice sounded out a message; the hawk continued on as though this was the most natural thing in the world and ignored us like we didn't exist. Now we were wondering - is the dude just enjoying the beauty of the sky, is he just so fearless of humans now or is the mighty bird of prey injured? Who knew but by then I thought lets go on and we can keep wondering the rest of the way.

In fact, just that one sight of the hawk made my day. It could have been anything but it was like an impossibility - seeing a hawk at such close quarters in the middle of civilization. We completed the rest of the round rather uneventfully; I then decided to do the next round in the other direction; half way through, met one of my regular Dish friends, we said our customary hi's and then I asked him if he had seen the hawk; he said yes, it was pretty and we continued down our different paths. Well, the hawk wasn't there on my second round but this person had seen it; so he flew away. That ruled out the possibility of him being injured. Now, that only meant that he was truly a cool dude and knew how to get at people if he really wanted to or he is just a new breed of hawks who has decided that we can start adopting these ferocious birds. Whatever be the reason, it added to the natural beauty around us and as I was talking to another regular at the end of my second round, she said that that's what made it amazing to come here regularly - one never knew what it held in store.