An Omen

I think of myself as a realist. I've never been much for horror movies and don't have too many superstitions. For most of my life, good decisions and hard work have rewarded me with "good luck" and bad decisions and laziness have resulted in "bad luck". So I don't usually buy into signals from the great beyond.

I may have to modify this attitude somewhat after a recent encounter. I was in my kitchen yesterday, when I looked out the back window and immediately noticed an owl. For many people, seeing an owl may not be that big of a deal, but for someone in central Phoenix it is an unusual sight. I immediately grabbed my camera and got a few shots before he took off. By the way, this was no small bird, I estimated he had about a four foot wingspan. We have a surprising variety of birds that migrate through my neighborhood during the year, but this was fun to see.

I guess I am not such a realist as I thought, because I immediately came in and Googled "owl omen" and read up on the various susperstitions surrounding an encounter with an owl. The whole incident made me laugh because there is some sort of built in psychology regarding meetings with the unusual. In any event, I am going to take it as a positive sign and look forward to my good fortune in 2008.