This happened several blood moons ago…

I was out on a lacrosse/soccer field doing 100-yard sprints with two minutes rest in between.

After finishing the first four warmup bursts, I ran two more at about 80 percent max. And as I walked back to the start, two sandhill cranes parked their feet at the finish line, with one in the exact path of yours crudely.

No big deal, I thought. And ignorantly so.

I took off on sprint numero seven, figuring this highly intelligent, lovely and unassuming bird would see me hauling ass and move out of the way.

When I reached mid-field, the crane stood motionless. I noted how it was looking slightly off center, so I kept up my pace.

At 80 yards the crane hadn’t so much as blinked one eyelash. Great. So peaceful. Such a harmonious and tranquil creature.

As I got within 10 yards, a guardian angel, I suppose, spoke the following unforgettable words: “Move to the side or you’re going to get killed.”

I immediately swerved to the left to finish the 100-yard burst. The crane, meanwhile, was still holding its ground.

Many years later, when I studied the crane, the peacock, the hawk, the rooster and other animals as part of my martial arts training, I realized, beyond a shadow of pout, that if I kept going straight ahead, the crane could have put its beak through my chest, puncturing my lungs or my heart.

Or it could have done what happened to a peacock farmer in Thailand a couple years back. I’ll spare you the gory details – but suffice to say that a peacock has talents that go way beyond looking pretty.

I believe that “voice” helped spare my life that day, and that is no exaggeration.

What’s more, I have no earthly idea why I felt the need to tell you this story. Perhaps I had to get an imaginary beak out of my chest.

Then again, maybe I told you this story because it epitomizes the power of stillness, and how to harness it the way I teach in my Power Postures course.

The crane definitely utilizes this incredible power, as do all the other birds, animals and critters. If more human beings practiced this type of standing stillness, the whirld we live in would be a much better place, me thinks.

And that’s the unmitigated truth.

Matt Furey