Hawk or Twig?

As soon as I woke up this morning I started thinking about what the Hawks would teach me today. I walked out to the screen house and sat down. I heard Hawk off to the North. The call seemed some distance away so I wondered if Hawk saw soaring, something we haven't seen the Hawks do since they've been here. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement to the Northeast. Expecting to see Hawk I looked up into the gray of the morning sky, sure that I would see Hawk complete a circle. I didn't. What I saw was a twig caught in a Spider web hanging from the corner of the screen house.

I was convinced I had seen Hawk soaring, and it got me thinking about the power of expectations. Hearing Hawk at a distance, I had put together an expectation so powerful that the movement of the stick connected the dots and created Hawk for me. I started wondering about how often this might happen, where my expectations coupled with a little information create a seductive unreal reality.

Today, I will be paying attention to the effects of my expectations. I will be noticing how my expectations about what is happening get in the way of my experience of what is actually unfolding in the moment I am in.