eagles.

Shit. I never thought it would turn out this way. But it has.
I'm glad.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands; 

Close to the sun in lonely lands, 

Ringed with the azure world, he stands. 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 

He watches from his mountain walls, 

And like a thunderbolt he falls. 

Walking on Schooner Cove beach on Sunday, an eagle flew overhead, above the sand-dunes. I waved and asked her to come back. She did. She was big. I say she because she was big, as per most of prey. She circled overhead and I could see her inner wing and body feathers - mottled, a late teen, but with the white head and tail. I've been getting to know her since 2008 or so.

Later, her and her brother flew by, and he, after I waved, came back and did a loop over me too. They feel like family. He flew between me and the sun, burning bright for an instant, like we all do, or hope to, "casting a golden light.."
(Seeing a golden eagle do this is supposedly a sign of enlightenment. I haven't written my anti-enlightenment blog entry yet, but it's comin..')

Nature is competetive. I have argued for years that it's also co-operative. Tennyson's poem, in a way reflects the competetive side. Is that action he describes also co-operative? Does co-operation always need to be 'nice?' But here's a thought I was just introduced to: is it (nature, us..) also coordinative? Collaborative?

What would Tennyson say?

Eagles, for those who know me, have fallen like thunderbolts in my life. The golden eagle in Halifax in 2005, the bald eagle whose children I was hanging out with on Sunday, who dropped one of his white tail feathers, from high in the sky, so that it landed right between my feet, way back in 93. What could be said of them, other than - coordinative. Those 'mere animals' have changed the course of my life and everyone I have touched. For the better, I believe.

My simple life today, my little rustic apartment by the beach, my friends, but no partner or life-long attachment (here), my simple lifestyle without much money or fancyness - there's no word in english for when your needs are served at the same time and in the same way as the needs of the world, and by that I mean - you are legitimately giving what you feel you were born to give. Shrug. I feel in tune with my higher aims. I never thought it would turn out this way - that my outer life would be so much simpler, and my 'true life' - so much richer, than I had pictured. Thanks for herding me to this place, and point in my life... :)

I still look up.
Always seeing you
Like an arrow at the sun...