My First Eagle

It was huge, a bird, a strange bird, lifting from the cold winter mist on my right.

A crane? It had the strangest markings for a crane I'd ever seen.
It was white on both ends, and then gray in the middle?
No, it was BLACK in the middle!

Then the full grown American Bald Eagle turned slightly and passed in review only a few feet before my very eyes.

I admit unashamed that my mouth dropped open in awe as I watched this symbol of America fly before me. Its strength was serene. Its power was barely tapped. Its concern for my presence was invisible. Secure in the knowledge it was protected by the laws of God and man, the eagle hewed straight for its distant mark and finally passed from my sight.

After a long moment I turned and marked the spot. I was on highway 71 coming from Fort Smith Arkansas towards Texarkana and about 1.5 miles beyond the town of Abbot. There was a large chicken barn to the east from whence the eagle had lifted. I wondered if the eagle had feasted on a chicken carcass that early morn.

I would gladly have chipped in the cost of the chicken to see that symbol of America fly again before my eyes.

The eagle was sacred in America long before the first Euromericans arrived. The eagle was so sacred that just to hold an eagle's feather in one's hand was a privilege. Tribal members sent to die in the hospital would often recover after holding an eagle feather while the medicine man prayed. The first time an eagle's feather was used to bless me I could feel a new power added to my heart and shoulders.

Symbols are powerful. The Stars and Stripes represent America too, but brings to mind the massive military might needed at the battles front. What is the flag but a scrap of material with bright colors emblazoned thereon. Yet, as a symbol, it unites the nation.

What is the eagle but a large bird that even a small pack of sparrows can drive from their territory? Yet, as a symbol, the eagle represents freedom for the individual -- the freedom to soar, to worship, and to range forever undeterred where boundaries cease to exist.

Everyone should have the privilege of personally seeing a full grown American Bald Eagle lift up from the mists and pass in review right before one's face. It is a life-lifting experience I shall always remember.

p.s. On a Saturday evening about a month later we were on our way to Sallisaw Oklahoma and there suddenly appeared another full grown bald eagle on our left. "Is that --?" I asked. "It IS!" This one was about 50 feet off the ground. He paused in front of us then drifted slowly off to the east. I got the car stopped and jumped out. My wife is a naturalist. I know she was not as excited to see him as I was because after she jumped out she grabbed my arm and shouted, "I saw him first, you just talk faster." Meanwhile, I was too excited to even think of who had seen him first.

p.p.s. The next morning was Sunday and as usual I had to be at the chapel at 7:00. Lo and behold, as I passed over a hill about two miles from here a grown Spotted Eagle appeared before me and continued to follow the road in front of me for nearly a mile. I believe this is the same eagle that I've seen over the house three other times now.

Since then I have seen a bald eagle soaring over the town of Mena. I was in the city swimming pool. When I pointed out the eagle soaring in the sky to my wife, others saw my finger pointing and soon everyone there had found the same thrill I had... it was their FIRST eagle.

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