Perspective

It's easy to be pensive these days.  And there is fine line between prayer and brooding.

Last week, the day after the local paper featured me as a face of autoimmune disorders, my disability company dropped me.

It is a small win however, that in order to drop me, the disability company had to boil my teacherly duties down to whether or not I could occasionally lift twenty pounds and since the doctor said I could occasionally lift that weight, I must be well enough to return to teaching.

They won this battle, but they won it cheaply.

Going to Hope every morning teaches me about perspective in sometimes the most literal sense.  This morning, I found my hawk easily.  He was grooming himself high in the tree.

If I turned to face him head-on, the sun was behind him, blinding me and casting him in silhouette.  Nor could I get behind him, because that area was overgrown.  And even from the side, I had pine needles in the way and had to fight with the camera to focus.

Sometimes in light, sometimes in shadow, sometimes obscured--all dependent on where I stood.