Follow the hawk into present possibilities.

Outside the glass door, a movement caught my eye. I looked up just in time to see the large red-shouldered hawk lift off the deck onto the railing and then into the trees.

I have seen this many times before. He is a regular visitor and has a nest in our trees.

This time, he took me with him when he flew.

For a fleeting split second, I felt something and realized something completely different from what I had ever felt or realized before.

I realized that although we try to explain how birds, bees, and butterflies fly, we really can’t explain the how of it.

There are apparently rational explanations. Their wings fit this way or that, wing size and wing velocity, but the answer truly is that we only have a speculative knowledge of how it works.

At that moment, as the hawk lifted and took me with him, I knew why we couldn’t truly understand how these beautiful creatures fly. It is because we are trying to find the answer within a flat-line experience.

We don’t see the realm that they live in; the wings are really for us, and for them, flight is just another means of movement.

The inhabitants of Flatland knew only one dimension. The story revolves around a three-dimensional object coming into view, which could not be seen by those who only saw two dimensions.

When one character has a perception-shifting moment and sees a three-dimensional object, he tries to explain to everyone else what he saw. However, they couldn’t see it in their flatland realm, so they assumed he was crazy.

In some ways, it resembles Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In this story, a group of people have been restrained in such a way that they can only see one blank wall in front of them. On that wall, the shadows of people walking behind them are reflected as they walk in front of a fire.

For the people who can only see that wall, that is the whole of reality. When one of them is freed, he sees the people, the sun, and the rest of the world. He returns to tell them what he has seen. They don’t believe him.

In both cases, an enlarged and expanded perception revealed what is always present but not visible in a limited perception of the world.

For that split second, I realized the hawk didn’t fly in our “realm.” He doesn’t fly in our experience of how the world works. He flies in another realm, where flying doesn't require wings, just a different perception of the world.

There have always been prophets, scientists, and spiritual seekers who consistently strive to shift their perception to see what is already present and then tell us about what they have found. Sometimes we listen. Sometimes, we act on what we have learned. Mostly, we ignore the possibilities.

Nature is a living example of the many realms that exist outside of our four-dimensional world.

Watch any part of nature with the desire to know outside of the five senses, and it will open the doors of perception to see the unlimited Reality that is already present. Sometimes, this Reality “leaks” into our current lives and shifts the outcome into more than is possible within the perception of being a human.

Imagine what we would live like if we consistently chose to see beyond the very limited abilities of our five senses. This choice could be our intent for our lives—to “know as we are known.” To follow the guidance of those who have told us that the Truth will set us free.

This is what the man in Flatland and The Cave tried to tell their friends and relatives. This is what the hawk helped me shift my perception to see.

Are you with me? Let’s be those who listen, follow, and shift to this spiritual perception of Reality, and then share it with those who are willing to shift with us.

Thank you, my hawk friend. It was a perfect gift.