Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

Unexpected

Alek went on a run today.  Dance is back in session, but he has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off this semester, so he wanted to fit in some additional exercise.  He was gone less time than usual for a run, but longer than I would have been in 26 degree weather when he came into the house alerting us that there was an owl in the neighborhood.  Now, we don’t live in – or even near – a big city, but we’re firmly in a suburban area.  I’ve seen turkey vultures, a deer, a pig, and many many bats, but never an owl.  The other kids and I threw on shoes and hoodies, grabbed the camera, and headed down the street to check it out.

The girls and I had seen an owl demo at the PowWow last October, but we were still excited to see this tiny creature [Alek had called it a baby].  When we arrived at the neighbors yard, Alek pointed and smiled.  It took the rest of us a while to find the wee thing – Bravo to its cloaking skills! 

Wow. 

It’s all I could say.  Jordan asked why I was so amazed and I laughed.  Why wouldn’t I be?? 

• I expect owls to come out at night, yet it was day.
• I expect owls to dislike the cold, yet here it is the middle of winter.
• I expect owls in the wilderness, yet we were in town.

So much joy from the unexpected.  Even being someone who loathes surprises of any nature, this was a wonderful bright spot in the day and left us wishing for a new surprise tomorrow. The potential impact was not unnoticed.  Mentally, I wagged a finger at myself.

We could all benefit much from delivering the unexpected. Most of us, I believe, settle into the ‘normal’ and the comfortable in many areas of our life.  Family friends, business… emotional, physical, mental.  The forces around us urge movement and perhaps even chaos, but we resist, wishing to be rocked like infants into a comfortable state. 

We must work towards new ‘unbelievable’ events by surprising our relationships in a new way.    We must. The owl has decreed it.

What unexpected things can you bring to your own life to better yourself, your loved ones, or even strangers you come in contact with?  I’m putting this into practice beginning immediately – focusing on Bats! meow… and on my intimate family relationships.

I urge you to look for your own owls.

~sheila

Tags: alek, goals, owls, winter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Daily Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.