Eagles

Haiku My Heart

March 23, 2012

Haiku My Heart is a weekly exercise that started over at my friend Rebecca's recuerda mi corazon blog. Have a visit, read more Haiku. See fantastic photos and art work. Read magnificent stories. Share the love. Meet new friends. Do it by clicking on This recuerda mi corazon Link.

Some day I’ll soar like

An Eagle, and look down on

Man living in Peace

The Eagle has been figuring very prominent in my life lately. I was driving to Hudson, another town about 10 miles from where I live. It is close to the freeway, so it has many more shopping opportunities and more selection. I was taking a trip to Fleet Farm, a large local chain farm supply, household goods and hardware store. There are numerous ways to drive to Hudson from my house. A quickest way, all high speed highway, a combination of high speed highway and County Roads, or the option I use, the meandering scenic, slower-moving County Road system all the way.

While going around a curve that is situated near the top of a small knoll, an Eagle sat close to the road on my right, in the ditch. He was big. His head was very white. I immediately thought that since it had rained the day before, he was so white because he rinsed off the Winter grime in the rain. I also thought he might be feasting on a road kill, maybe a deer carcass, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the whiteness of his head feathers, but everything to do with why he was standing so close to the roadway.

I went into Hudson, did my business and was headed back. I used the same route and he was still there, in the same place. He looked up when I was within the distance he needed to hear me, but he didn’t take to flight or move. He stood there and looked at me, just as I might catch the eye of a passerby if I was standing there.

There was a tobacco pouch open and sitting on my dashboard. I grabbed a handful, and cast it to the wind through the drivers side window, as I muttered a guttural sound of acknowledgment meant for the Creator to hear, I said out loud and to myself, “It’s always a good day when you see an Eagle.”

This happened on a day I was to attend the Sweat Lodge and have the Wopila that I wrote about some time ago. At the Wopila, I gave a dance stick to Gene,  the spiritual leader and friend of mine. That stick had an Eagle feather on it. The feather I used was one that floated up to me one day when I was sitting outside along the Great Lake Superior. I remember watching this thing, and wondering what it was, in the waves, as it washed inland from out on the big lake. When it got close, I went down to see what it was and lo and behold, there was a nice black Eagle feather.

Also, on that very same day, I got an e-mail from an old blogger friend from Oregon. (She’s not old, our friendship is) It was a photo her husband had taken of two Eagles sitting in a tree. I can go on and on and tell stories of Eagle sightings, Eagle feathers and Eagle related coincidences that I’ve been privy to. This is how it usually happens. Something might be happening and I’m planning on attending, maybe some decision has been made, maybe a pathway chosen, then the Eagles start to appear.


There are more reasons why the Eagle is such an honored totem to have as well. It is the greatest honor to receive an Eagle feather as a gift for good deeds that you have performed, or to mark a special achievement, like becoming a Warrior of the people, someone that serves their community and family well.

I’ve included some photos from my files along with this post of Eagles. The one my friend sent me and of those I’ve seen when I’ve had my camera close at hand. Some are out of focus as I was driving or they were just too far away. 

I do make the trek to the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis quite often. The road I use runs along the great Mississippi River through St. Paul. It is no surprise that there are Eagles along the river bluffs. One might say that seeing an Eagle along this route is common and no big deal. Yet I feel that when a particular Eagle flies along your path at the exact time that you are there, or when you spot one camouflaged in a treetop overlooking the river as you’re driving the only car within a half mile of the spot, these sightings are meant for you and you alone at that particular moment and may hold great meaning.

Anyway, I wrote the haiku about the Eagle as in one of the creation stories, the Creator allows the Eagle, the bird that can fly higher than any other bird,  to be on watch and tell the Creator when he sees someone putting down tobacco and praying. The Creator had planned on ending this world because the people didn’t care any longer and were disrespecting the Sacred Earth Mother and each other.

That still goes on, but it is the Eagle that tells the Great Spirit that there are still people who pray for others and try to live in peace with all of mankind. The agreement between The Creator and the Eagle is that as long as there is one person left that still prays, he’ll allow the world to exist. This thought makes me hopeful that Peace will spread on the wings of the Eagle. I’ll continue to spread the tobacco when I see one. After all, it may even be The Creator showing himself to you in the form of the great Eagle. Then again, it could be a mouse.

Peace to all