Becoming That Inner Thinner You
Feed the Hungry ~ Harriet the Hawk
Eileen Renders
Feeding the hungry definitely is always present in my mind whenever the opportunity occurs. Today, I will share with you a true story about carrying over the idea of feeding the hungry. As I see it, feeding the hungry also pertains to the animals of the wild.
There was an occasion one time when I found chicken livers in our refrigerator, and it is not a food I have ever cooked, nor my husband or I have eaten. When I questioned him, he told me that a hawk was showing up on our front lawn by the tree probably every other day, and he fed it.
I began to take an interest, and when he went to the front door with a chicken liver, I followed him out the front door. And there it was, a hawk on our front lawn. I too began to buy chicken livers at the grocery store and asked my husband to put up a little perch for the bird to sit, stay, and eat. The bird was very nervous, and usually grabbed the chicken liver and flew the coop so to speak. After a couple of weeks, another larger hawk showed up on the perch for food as well.
The larger hawk took to the perch, while the smaller hawk flew in, grabbed a chicken liver and quickly flew over to the next-door neighbor’s roof, he was always somewhat nervous coming close to us and remained at a distance while the food was being placed on the perch. However, the larger hawk was not so nervous, and always took its place on the perch, and ate the food while sitting there. With a little research, I soon learned that it is not unusual that the female hawk is generally larger than her counterpart male hawk.
Soon, I began to suspect that she was pregnant, and after feeding her, whom I named Harriet, I would stand at my front door for 5 to 10 minutes just greeting her and talking to her. She never got nervous, nor flew away too soon. She rather sat there after finishing her meal staring at me and listening to my voice. One day a car coming down the Street slowed down, rolled down his window, and called out saying: “Is that your hawk?” I smiled and told him no, just coming to eat.
At one point she came for her meal and sat up on the neighbor’s roof while I walked to the perch with the chicken livers. Suddenly, and unexpectantly, she swooped down and flew toward the perch, and just above my head, her talons barely touching she felt the hair on my head, and then she took her place on the perch. It felt as though a slight breeze had caressed my head. It was obvious that she was careful not to scratch my head. I stood and talked to her as I usually did, and she would sit and stare at me as though she understood my words, or was at least enjoying my voice that she had come accustomed to.
Not too long after that day, I realized that my friend Harriet the Hawk was not coming around anymore. Truly, I missed her and also felt a bit of concern for her wellbeing. A week or two, and soon the perch came down. I was busy with life as we all are with family and the home and thoughts of Harriet began to dwindle.
Then one day, I was in the front yard and had the car trunk up. Then all of a sudden, I heard this loud shriek, and it resonated up and down the Street. My first thought was that maybe someone was hurt, or got hit by a car. That is when I realized the sounds were louder and now above my head. I looked up, and to my great surprise, I saw Harriet flying overhead wanting to attract my attention to show off her two babies now half-grown, and on each side of her was one of her babies.
I was amazed and delighted! I never expected to see her again. And here she was intent on coming by and showing off her babies to me, and letting me know that she had not forgotten me, or my kindness. I had made friends with a wild Hawk. And Harriet had shown me that Hawks are smart, grateful, and maintain memories. What a blessing to have been able to witness and experience Harriet's introduction to her family. I believed that I hadn’t seen her for a while as she was busy teaching her babies how to find food, what to eat, and how to fly so that they could be capable, efficient, and independent. Kindness, even to animals of the wild, can teach us great lessons, and help us to understand they can have feelings and emotions, I found great joy in the experience.