A Sunday Somewhat Short:

THIS, I’ll believe.

Jul 21, 2024

We get to choose our beliefs.

Beliefs are not pre-ordained, or divine/god-given, or inevitable. Beliefs are unique to the individual—everyone gets to have their own beliefs. But not their own facts. Beliefs and facts are not the same thing, even as sometimes they align.

A few things we can choose to believe in, or not:
Chocolate is the BEST ice cream flavor.
Dead Poets Society is the best movie ever made.
Simone Biles is the G.O.A.T.
Lionel Messi is the all time greatest fútbol player IN. THE. WORLD.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Republicans are evil.
Democrats are communists.
God.
No God.
Guardian angels are real.
My religion is the only true religion.
Democracy.
And hawks watch out for you on long-distance road trips.

Yep, ALL beliefs. Not a single one of them facts (though some approach closer to fact more than others—I’ll leave you to determine which). A fallacy we humans “believe” is: just because most people believe in something, that automatically makes it fact. “It must be the truth because everybody knows it!” We’ve heard this, right? And recently. And loudly. And WAAAAYYYYY too often.

Truth is not based on “popular belief.”

Or how about this one: have you heard this lately? “Everyone’s entitled to have their own beliefs, but you don’t get to have your own facts.” This demarkation, one that should never have been greyed, is grey now. Unfortunately. THIS happens to be truth.

Facts are facts. Alternative facts, to re-coin a phrase, are false-hoods.

We choose our beliefs, which sometimes change over time—evidence of actual truth, based on rational, scientific inquiry, being beside the point. Science is the best human-created tool that comes closest to discovering truth. That’s not a belief btw, that’s fact too.

Okay, but that’s not the point of my post today. My point is what I’ve come to believe over the course of our recently completed road trip to So Cal.

flying hawk in sky — Photo by Matthew Essman on Unsplash

As you read this, we’ve just arrived at our destination in Palm Springs completing a great road trip for my wife and me. Four days, 1532 miles, doughnuts, Redwoods, Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), the Salinas Valley corridor of farmland, Crescent City, The Golden Gate Bridge, Carmel, Santa Cruz, Oxnard, vegan food, a fun tour that will be shared later, and finally Palm Springs. The in-law’s vehicle safely delivered to its new forever home in Bermuda Dunes (and all in one piece Lee and Patty—as promised! PROMISE!).

But something additional was a part of our trip—something I think unique, because of all the road trips I have taken, I’ve never notice or seen this before. So, I’m making a choice to believe something.

Something important.

eagle flying on the sky — Photo by Simon Fitall on Unsplash

Synchronicity is a belief. At least as understood now. Quantum physics seems to be on the cusp of uncovering more of the non-physical workings of the Universe. Consciousness, mind, action at a distance, form as empty space, spirit, dark matter, what comes after death—all worthy of scientific pursuits moving each from the realm of belief to factual truth.

🦅🦅🦅

Maybe this was coincidental. Maybe this was simply a fluke of happenstance because it’s simply how “they” hang out and we just happened to be traveling under them on our way to Cali (science would say exactly this). Or maybe it was synchronistic and meant to be for reasons we cannot yet understand.

We had guardian hawks soaring above us throughout our road trip!

True!

Fun facts:

Hawks often hunt at dawn when nocturnal animals are still awake.
Hawks sometimes fight in the air over food.
Hawks mate for life. The male does tricks in the air to impress a female. These showcases can last over 10 minutes.
Hawks build large nests out of sticks. The nests can be 3 feet wide. Hawks place their nests atop a tall tree, a cliff or even a cactus.
A hawks eyesight is excellent, their hearing is also excellent but a hawks sense of smell is not so good.

Hawks can dive at speeds in access of 150 mph – yikes that’s fast.
Female hawks are generally larger than their male counterparts.
Hawks can hunt in the air also for other birds.
There are over 200 species of hawks worldwide. The largest hawk in North America is the Ferruginous Hawk.
A hawk can see colors.
A hawk can live up to 20 years, although 13 to 15 years is about the norm.
The large rough legged hawk has a wingspan up to 1.4 m (4.5 ft).

(Source: https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-hawks/)

And maybe hawks safeguard certain travelers on long road trips—as avian guardian angels. Now, I don’t “believe” in guardian angels, at least as I was taught in my Catholic catechism classes. But I do choose to believe that one can resonate strongly with other-than-human beings. Usually these are pets; but we are all familiar with hard-to-explain experiences humans sometimes have with wildlife (just google it if you’re not too familiar with this phenomena—and then be awed). We have the capacity to resonate strongly with other beings—trouble is, we are so self-centered, we never take the time to explore this fully. But, it’s fact. It’s also a fact we cause many of those beings to suffer, and even eat a variety of them, though it appears they don’t hold it against us. THAT fact can’t do us any favors when we try to bond with more-than-human beings.

Over the span of our days and miles of travel this past week, we’d notice, every other hour or so, multiple hawks soaring high above us! As if they were checking in to let us know: “We see ya down there; the way ahead is clear. We’ve got your six!”

Okay, maybe this was just coincidental as highways tend to be areas where hawk prey concentrates. Maybe. But this trip, I choose to believe something else.

Every time I saw them soaring above us, as if they were tracking our car and flying along with us for a few minutes, I had a feeling. A feeling that I knew what they were really doing. Sometimes, connections cannot be explained, but they can be felt.

This, I’ll believe. And I get to believe this too so there’s absolutely no point in you trying to dissuade me. This belief hurts no one, is mine alone, and, who knows, maybe it IS the truth.

That, I’ll believe too.

In one’s alchemy, as we compose our lives using the experiences we are fortunate to have in these temporary bodies, incredible experiences like driving down the coast on a loooong road trip, beliefs are important. Beliefs help us to function in our world in a variety of ways. Some beliefs are hurtful, some are benign, and some are beneficial. All are optional as choices.

And some turn certain birds of prey into avian guardians of road trippers.

So, to my newly found guardians, GO HAWKS!!! (Some of you will see what I did just there!).