The mornings are getting cooler now. The fields along the creek hold a stillness that comes when the days begin to shorten, and in the trees a few leaves have started to change.
I’ve walked these fields and watched the seasons turn year after year. My parents and grandparents taught me the names of the trees, the birds, and the call of the hawk that circles above the fields. I always thought we had mostly Red-tails here, but I’m learning that we have more variety.
Lately I’ve been showing down and watching with new eyes. One morning as I was walking, something different appeared over the cornfield. A shape glided low with long steady wings. I caught a flash of white near the base of its tail that shone bright against the stubbled ground. I lifted my binoculars and followed its path as it skimmed the open field, and then rose toward the tree line. It was beautiful.
Later I learned it was a Northern Harrier, a raptor that travels south from the northern wetlands and is among the first of the migrating hawks to appear each fall. Sleek and long-winged, it carries the unmistakable look of a hunter.
It flies close to the earth, searching for movement and listening for the faintest sound in the grass. Unlike most hawks, the harrier nests among the grasses and low cover, and sometimes a few will roost together through the colder months.
There’s a quiet tenderness in the way even a fierce predator, after a day of solitary flight, comes to rest among others. As night falls, they settle into the sheltering grass, side by side through the long hours of winter.
I like that thought. It feels like a lesson whispered from the living world, reminding us that connection is the language of life itself.
Maybe that is what fall is asking of us too. It is asking us to draw closer, and to rest in the company of those who help steady us through the darker months.
So I am honoring that invitation and listening differently this year. I am watching the fields, noticing the first visitors of fall, and wondering what small communities are gathering in my own life, still unseen but beginning to take shape on the horizon.
What are you noticing where you are?
Keith Rowe is a breathworker, teacher, and founder of Vital Healing, a nonprofit that helps people reconnect with the wisdom of their heart through breathwork, somatic practice, and walking meditation.
He is co-creator of the upcoming Walking Pilgrim app, a 33-day journey of mindful walking and presence. Sign up to receive updates for when it is released at walkingpilgrim.com.