"Alone with the morning sunshine, I was left sitting in the middle of a state I did not know, like a man with no home, untethered to anything other than the planet itself like Kerouac’s Sal Paradise on the road. Paraphrasing him, “the golden land lay ahead…where all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you’re alive to see.” At that moment, I could have walked away from the rented car and all I had known; followed the scrub jay’s leave and found answers to my questions; and with that perhaps even freedom...
"Another hundred yards down the track toward the north, a hawk was making itself known, obviously disturbed. Red-shouldered hawks are highly vocal. I stood, turned and had not made three dozen steps toward the ruckus when a tall stand of pines to my left erupted with life. An adult bald eagle bobbed up and down, unfurling its eight-foot wingspan prior to take off. I knew instantly that the bird had been watching me, lost in my vagabond dream. My heart raced as the majestic bird of prey took flight and swooped down over the track, dipping low not 50 feet in front of me. It climbed and sailed off to my right and since the railroad bed was raised for a time we were virtually eye to eye."
"I watched this country’s symbol — talons free of arrows or snakes or olive branches — as it flew to the east and out of sight. Anytime a moment like this unfolds, the world slows, it’s forever etched in your life’s memories."
Photo by Wayne Mallinger.
Excerpt from Natural Histories published by the University of Tennessee Press. Book available at Ijams Nature Center or from the author.
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