Rest for A Moment, The Heart of A Nation Still Flies Strong
Dec 21st, 2008 | one response
The eagle… uncanny symbol of our nation …flying strong, with intent, knowing the ancient migration paths, having wild instinct fully intact; how to feast, hunt, rest, care for the young, soar… both symbolically and literally… this spirit remains strong in the greater culture, as well as in individuals….
Viz: a story-cito…
There is a tough guy who lives down the road from me. He packs more heat than ten acres of chile peppers. You know the kind of guy, gruff, battle-scarred, walks like he’s got a pair, few words, has a glare that could turn water to ice on the fourth of July… and shhhhhh, I’m not supposed to tell, but you know how guys like this are secretly: huge golden heart. Proven.
Today he sent me an email. Brusque, to the point, no message, just a header in the subject line, “eagles are back… “ and this pix he took of these big snaggy cottonwoods that grow where we live… and up there in the branches….sure enough… America’s white-headed angels…
Here, for you to see too …
_________
photog credit: Prez Morrill
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One Response to “Rest for A Moment, The Heart of A Nation Still Flies Strong”
Hey Doc!
Thanks for the picture!
When I was growing up in and around the bigger cities in California (San Francisco, San Diego, LA etc) we were told that due to pesticides (DDT in particular) the Bald Eagles had been just about driven to extinction. As a matter of fact, we were told, “By the time you kids grow up the Bald Eagle will be no more.”
As a child I found this information devastating. My grandmother's people consider them to be sacred and I remember thinking to myself, “Why is it everything Sacred has to die?”
As the years flew by (and they did FLY by) I became aware that the teacher who had told me about the Bald Eagle might just be right about their extinction.
Everywhere I went in the United States, I tried to find out of there were any Bald Eagles being sighted…
The reports were all negative and I was depressed and quite beyond sad over the situation.
Whenever I received a new “negative” about the Bald Eagles, I would wander off, by myself and cry for awhile.
About ten years ago (after a disastrous end to an even more disastrous relationship) I wound up moving to British Columbia to help out at a wolf rescue.
It was in the middle of the mountains with no one near us for many, many miles (the nearest small city was hundreds of miles away).
45 wolves howling at the moon can be irritating to some people …thus we were isolated to the extreme.
When I first got there it was at the towards the end of winter and spring was just beginning to show her hand (the beginning of growth on the land had started). Some amount of snow was still on the ground but it was clearing.
Within a week of my arrival the snow was almost gone and I was already settled in.
I had a small flat down below the larger house and a very large pen for my own canines to play in.
I loved it there. It was the only time in my life when I felt I'd found “home.”
I would get up early (4-5 a.m.), cook up some tea and start getting things ready for the 45 woofers (food, stuff to clean their water troughs, getting my tools together to check and fix the fencing lines, etc) and then when the sun came up, I'd check my email and then start out (yes, email..even back then I was a geek).
One morning, I got up, made some tea and walked outside with my two pups.
I had my tea cupped in my hands for warmth and smiled as I watched my two run around the pen pretending to be “big wolf hunters of the north.” I was thinking, “God.. you two are so cute..” when this HUGE shadow went over head.
I was looking down at the ground when it happened and saw the shadow even as I felt it go by me…
My head shot up and there SHE was!
A BALD EAGLE!
Not even a few feet past me, over my head and flying down FAST into the field adjacent to my flat …I stood and watched as she picked up her breakfast (a rather unfortunate mouse) and flew back towards me and back over my head.
As the event occurred, my jaw dropped open, my cup fell from my hands and I just …
GASPED.
I stood there laughing as I watched her and another .. YES.. another flew by…smaller…
A male.
Her mate.
And in the midst of laughing in sheer amazement and joy, I realized that tears were pouring down my cheeks.
They were here! Even better… they were mating!
I finally let out a shout of glee (I don't know what sound came out .. but it was something close to “WOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOT!”
I couldn't stay still. I danced around and jumped up and down …
I was beside myself for the joy of it all.
I found out that afternoon from the lady that ran the rescue that the two Bald Eagles had a nest on the other side of the property. They had been nesting in this area for the last few years. I felt joy for the total awe of it and everyday would scan the sky to find them.
In time, I saw not only the two I'd originally sighted but .. I saw their children.
It was a beautiful thing in my life to have witnessed this. For a short while, it gave me hope.
Yes.
They are coming back and I can only hope that we are not so stupid (again) as to screw up their ecosystem so badly that we lose them again….It's as if we've been given another chance.
I truly pray we don't toss this opportunity into the trash.
My two cents worth.
Ghosty
PS I was underneath that Bald Eagle by only a few feet when she flew over my head and I can tell you this for a fact .. being a matter of feet from a Bald Eagle flying over you has a feeling to it that is not unlike being touched by GOD. I now know why my mothers ancestors thought them to be sacred and holy …
Because they are.