"How sane are we?"

I once wrote about some thoughts which inspired somebody to quote me in full whilst he was asking "How Sane Are We?" In the Editorial of the International Journal of Falconry - Spring 2009, I had written:

"Patrick Morel and I have lately shared in an ongoing conversation about our motivation in falconry, much like most of our members do in their local pub, wine bar, BBQ and social event.

Like Patrick I too lost interest in shooting many years ago and gave it up until a few years later when I realized that it was not about my ability to be a good shot but was about being a way of life experience creating enjoyable sensations I could not experience any other way. One certainly does not remember many shots but there are the few magical ones that really mean so much –  also the sight of a woodcock flying through the wood, a green woodpecker calling as it escapes the beaters, my dog making a superb retrieve, my cleaning the gun with the smell of cordite and oil all touch something deep inside. Falconry equipment and paintbrushes litter the tables and maybe annoy my wife but for me are so inspiring.

It has been the same with my falconry. I gave it up twice, years ago, as I became disillusioned with experiences from what I was doing. But I missed the hawks on the lawn more than anything and noticed that the triggers they provided for my moment to moment thoughts were missing - I found myself struggling to run my life. – everything I see is understood through my falconry, every moment of every day is clarified by what my falconry is doing. Daily routines of managing my falconry as my way of life create my way of acting, my relationships, enjoyment or misery. Over my lifetime I came to realize that my world comes to me through my falconry

The Sparrowhawk that flies through the yard as I walk out the door confirms to me my authenticity somehow, the wild passage Peregrine that was waiting for me on my airfield this week and who gave me the perfect flight at a wood-pigeon seemed to link my own hawk to her natural world as she flew in the following minutes under the same sky, in the same air.

My desire for weather and artistic flight confirms my being and provides me with context which previously, without falconry, I missed. My just doing it as my routines in action creates me as it creates its own flight, as each flight is its own unforeseen surrender to creation and a magical experience in my chosen daily routine.

Today I have flown three falcons – two went quite well for where they are at in their lives, green plover passed over us at a great height arriving for the new breeding season. Continuity is the thread of life in my falcons and dogs in the world around us and around which I weave my life – my life given me by my falconry, providing joyful experience for my falcons in every aspect of their lives. As I now visit them on their screen perch for the night we talk, each with pictures in ourselves of what life has been and will be – it’s enough, so long as I maintain focus on my own being and its way of life. Greater still when several lives can come together in experiences of a shared dream of a field meet as we did recently in Sezanne, attraction was created bringing unforeseeable fulfillment in so many enjoyable sensations, now added to memories that live forever somehow. Enjoy your falconry."