The Necessary Hiatus

I have decided to title today's photo simply "Vigilance". It's of two good-natured shepherds keeping watch over their home turf.

My eagle and my hawk visitors from yesterday and today were perhaps trying to tell me something. The nearly white eagle had winged across the sage towards me after his drop into the creek. I was chilled by the beauty of his unusual, nearly transparent plumage in the sun as he soared low and lightly overhead and took up a roost in a dead tree at the top of the mesa directly behind the Rat. I called out to him in my best Eaglelese and he watched me intently, uttering the occasional response. The voice of the raptor is one which strikes a chord deep within my soul and echoes back out through my every bone and atom of flesh.

The hawk came by today. I had been looking out a large window of the Rat, enthralled by the aerobatics of a thrush as it tight-looped up and around to catch a grasshopper mid-air and I told Mark to watch. What nearly filled the window almost immediately was a hawk which swerved upwards from the ground at the last moment and landed on the roof overhead. We could see his outline interrupting the roof line as the Rat's shadow played across the ground. I ran out the opposite side of the Rat and the hawk began to repeatedly circle above my head. It was those damnably exuberant Aussie shepherds who caught sight of him and set up a raucous, stampeding melee to end that moment. The hawk swerved wide and took up vigil in a tree on the edge of the first bench up the mesa. I had the field glasses with me and we both stayed put, intently watching each other for half an hour until those dogs distracted me once more with their energetic foolishness. When I looked back, the hawk had departed as quietly and mysteriously as the eagle on the day before. I find something immensely strengthening and energizing in these rare visits which could not be duplicated by another mere human like myself. It's as though they wished to share their untamed, natural strength with me, to refresh me, to remind me that I am still a warrior at heart. Perhaps they were warning and girding me for a conflict ahead.

The complete unaccountability of the potentially fatal hit and run aside, it was today that Mark had been dealt a last straw to shake his ever gentle 'turn-the-other-cheek', 'do unto others' demeanor. We have both run out of fresh cheeks to offer. Mind you, we had been warned repeatedly by everyone who has dealt with the ways of the two ton energy gorillas out here that we were far too kindly for our own good.

This must simply change now, not just for our own good but for the good of many to follow. We have seen our generosity repeatedly abused and find it shamelessly rude. Enough is simply enough after saving and doing without for so many years to realize this dream of ours to find that corporations and collaborating government departments could largely care less about even what few rights a land-owner might have. No, I am not talking about any armed insurrection here ... we just don't conduct ourselves in such a manner (although some already have resorted to this in utter frustration). But we will avail ourselves to any legal recourse available and do what is necessary to reign in the abuses and treading upon rights that we are experiencing.

I am finally wise enough to understand my limitations in battle: those taunting chest pains and the pleasant long distractions of things like blogging. And so I wish to take leave of your very kindly company to concentrate my remaining energies and resources on this particular battle. I still have so many very interesting tales to share with you but this new matter does seem to be a priority, for my own peace of mind and sense of honor, if nothing else. Please don't forget us in the interim and please do check back in November in case we have some good news to share. And in the meantime, don't let any of this dissuade you from your own dreams. You will never regret trying and, like so many things in this interesting life, sometimes you regrettably have to take a stand to defend it. I am not so old that I have completely forgotten how to pull on a set of war gauntlets and flip down the visor before a charge. The spirit is still willing and that is good and maybe all I could hope for.