Interrupting Turkey

A tree-roosting turkey nearly landed on my head.

Not what I expected on a post-dinner dog walk, but life’s surprises are seldom announced.

The word “surprise” traces its roots through the Latin word “prehendere”, to grasp or to seize.” Or, in my case, to catch off guard. By the time the turkey landed at my heels, it had all of my attention. Instantly, the energy I’d been spending on daydreams became the more immediate energy of survival.

Our minds take us to some pretty far-out places. Homespun destinations that exist only between our ears. Most are places we would happily pay not to visit, yet somehow we ramble into them for free.

This is why I’m always grateful for an interrupting turkey. A surprise that sometimes arrives as shock. Sometimes as wonder. In this case, as both.

Either way, we are returned to ourselves. To the place we actually are. To the only place we can actually live: the present moment.

Nacho and I made it home unscathed. We are looking up more on our after-supper walks.