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 he, or other members of his family, have a nest in our trees.

This time he took me with him when he flew.

For a fleeting split second, I felt something, realized something, completely different than 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, wing velocity, but the answer truly is, we only have a speculative knowledge of how it works.

In 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, for them flight is just another means of movement.

The inhabitants of Flatland knew only one dimension. The story revolves around a 3-dimensional object coming into view, which could not be seen by those who only saw 2-dimensions. When one of the characters has a perception shifting moment and sees the 3-dimensional object, he tries to explain to everyone else what he saw. However, in their flatland realm, they couldn’t see it, so 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, 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 doesn’t fly in our “realm. ” He doesn’t fly in our experience of how the world works. He flies in another realm altogether where flying doesn’t require wings really, 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 exists outside of our 4-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 life and shifts the outcome into more than is possible within the perception of human.

Imagine what we would live like if we consistently choose 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 that 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 that listen and follow, and shift to this spiritual perception of Reality, and then share it with those that are willing to shift with us.

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