The Emotion of Beauty

The assignment given on Monday was to "be struck by something." Find something that suddenly strikes you as beautiful or fascinating or brings new wonder. We weren't supposed to be "looking" for it. It would just happen, and when it happened, we would recognize it. Today I was thinking, "What have I experienced like that since yesterday?" And then I remembered. Yesterday around 1:45pm I was leaving my house to go to work. As I pulled out of my driveway, a roadrunner darted across the street, coming towards me, and ran in my neighbor's drive and stopped. I stopped my car and exclaimed aloud, "Oh my gosh, it's a roadrunner!" No one heard me, and no one shared in my fascination. It stood there long enough for me to really get a good look at its tail and feathers and how its body had a curved shape, almost like a banana resting on two sticks. I have never seen a roadrunner that closely before. I have never seen one near my home. I sat and stared at it, wondering where it had really come from. I thought of the various animals I have seen around my home: a skunk, quail, chipmunks or rock squirrels, hummingbirds and birds of all types, including the mother robin who built a nest and raised her young in a beam in front of my front door. I had photographed the entire journey from the freshly-built nest to the empty nest after the last of her chicks learned to fly. She had learned to trust me as I came and went, knowing I would respect her privacy and protect her home. And so yesterday was my first experience with a roadrunner. I didn't have my camera. Dang, that would have made a wonderful shot. But I am glad I had that moment - the few minutes that we sat and stared at each other. That was the moment I was "struck" by the beauty of nature, and by the awe of getting the opportunity to look closely at a bird which I've rarely seen.