Yesterday, an American bald eagle soared above the Hall and landed on the cell tower.
When I was a young girl, bald eagles were an endangered species. They were listed by the government in 1978, a year after I graduated from high school. What followed were nationwide conservation efforts that included the banning of DDT, and by 2007, bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list.
Several years ago, I did a vision quest with James Inabinet, and out in the Kiln, I meditated, whittled, prayed, and sat by a fire till my totem came to me in a vision. It was a bald eagle. While that might seem obvious if you see that I am bald, it wasn’t obvious to me. I had always felt a kinship to elephants. The day of my quest, James saw an eagle flying above the treetops, one of only two he has seen in his area since living there. That eagle was affirmed and confirmed, it would be my totem.
The eagle has the distinct ability to fly high above the maddening crowd, to slow its roll, and to pivot as needed when it tracks prey. The eagle also has a stealth flight system – it soars steadily, almost gliding through the sky – this, I learned in California from Ms. Terwilliger, a conservationist, is because an eagle’s prey is alive and dynamic, unlike a vulture, who wobbles in flight because it preys only on the dead.
My home, Bay Saint Louis, is home to many bald eagles. A couple of my photographer friends have taken some amazing shots of eagles who nest in our area. Isn’t it astounding how an act of conservation saved the bald eagle from extinction? See how we, the government, and ordinary people are when we work together? We can do amazing things!
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on social media. Note: emojis show up as a ? on my site.]