“A moment” by Catharine Steel-Ewart

 

I had a moment yesterday afternoon that C.S. Lewis would have described as being surprised by joy. I was sitting on my back step trying to enjoy the sunshine on my face, but the noise of my neighbourhood was agitating me. Car doors slamming; drilling and hammering from the renovation being done across the street; a yapping dog; loud adults talking over their screaming children.

Instead of grumbling and grumping and going back into the house, I closed my eyes and slowed down my breath and searched for the sounds underneath the cacophony of the street. Here I heard doves cooing, seagulls calling from high above the earth, small birds chattering. Slowing and going deeper, the street sounds retreated further away until I only heard the soughing of the wind through the upper branches of the red pine trees that sit at the edge of my small backyard.

It was then I opened my eyes, looked up, and there she was in the bright blue sky, a daytime moon, halfway to being full, and a hawk soaring silent, hunting the backyard bird feeders.  And there I sat with the moon and the hawk until the hawk soared away and the sounds of the street once again made itself known.

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Catharine Steel-Ewart lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with her husband, her dog Sadie, and one very needy cat named Stoker. Connecting with nature is as important to her as breathing, and besides rambling Niagara’s wooded trails, she looks for the wilderness that is present but often hidden within the city.

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