One wind

I was driving home from my first real job during a blizzard a couple of decades ago. At the time, my favorite thing about the job might have been my commute. While short, it took me past a state park and I enjoyed seeing the lake, the trees and the wildlife for a few minutes. On this particular day, I mostly saw snow. In a fine Iowa fashion, it wasn't so much falling as flying horizontally on gusting winds.

As I passed the park, I saw an unusual combination. A red tailed hawk was perched on the chain link fence not ten feet from a crow. Competitive carrion eaters usually give each other wide berth unless they are squabbling over a kill. They didn't look like competitors in that storm, though.

The hawk was perched on the top of one of the posts. He stood straight and tall. Only the tiniest of his feathers were out of place. His bright eyes were scanning the landscape, looking for prey like it was just another afternoon.

The crow, on the other hand, was clutching the chain link with both feet and his beak. His wings were flapping for balance. His feathers were puffed out for warmth and some of the tiny ones were actually being blown away. He was too busy trying to hold on to do anything else.

At the time, it struck me how two similar creatures could respond so differently to the same event. I thought of how rarely we would stop and think that someone who seems cool and collected might be going through the same storm as someone who seems like they are just barely holding things together. What's inside of us - our strength, grit, wisdom - might have more   to do with our situation than what's going on outside us. One wind. Two very different responses.

Recently, I was sharing this with a counselor. That feeling I had that I was just not as well equipped as others to deal with the storms of life. And even as I said it, I realized I might have been wrong. You see, I was caught up in appearances. The important thing wasn't that the hawk looked better than the crow. The important thing was that they both held on.