Red-tailed Hawk : Hear My Voice
Red-tailed Hawk
This is a Red-tailed Hawk. You’ll notice immediately that it screamed as it flew over my head. My internal volume is typically set to “quiet and contemplative” when I wander and wonder. So it was jarring - beyond jarring, actually - when this insistent hawk announced his presence in such a powerful way. I’m quite proud of this photo, given that I jumped about a foot in the air just as I pressed the shutter button…. Bird watching - better, “bird hearing” - is often about straining to listen. Birds hide away in foliage, and it’s only their vocalization that reveals their presence. Typically this is expected and welcome, so this morning’s piercing shriek both delighted and shocked me. I wasn’t prepared for the hawk’s blistering cry amidst the cooing doves.
The voice of God. Obviously this is a poetical depiction, intended to put into approachable terms a reality that defies human capacities. At various places in the Biblical narrative, the Divine encounter runs the gamut. Psalm 29 tells of a powerful and majestic voice, strong enough to shatter the strongest trees and convulse the wilderness. Elijah, on the other hand, encounters God not in the whirlwind or the earthquake - but in the “still, small sound.” Abraham, despite seeing himself as nothing more than “dust and ashes,” engages in on-going conversation with God. The Israelite congregation standing at Sinai’s base pleads for Moses - only - to receive God’s overpowering message and then pass it along rather than experiencing the overwhelm directly.
How do we hear the range of voices in our lives? More precisely: how do we manage our reaction to hearing this spectrum. Human nature leans towards attempting to manage the message. “I wish he would say xyz.” “I’d like her to communicate more openly and honestly.” These are genuine and heartfelt desires. But others’ messages are beyond our control. Others’ voices are theirs, perhaps amenable to influence, but by no means subject to direction. Can we instead look through a different lens? Can we focus on controlling our own reactions and managing our own responses to the messages that come our way? We can’t know when the Hawk will scream - or how God will speak to us - but we can work on ourselves to take it all in stride.