I love eagles. It’s Thanksgiving Day, 2009 and, though I am alone as the only family I share this day with is my Son. This day always causes me to be thankful for the very special times I have shared in love with him.  So, this Thanksgiving I remembered a very special day I had with my son on one of our camping trips and I thought I would share it with you. My son and I go camping in a remote area of Napa Valley.   Our favorite camp site is very remote having a clearing in the trees next to where we set up our tent by the river.

 On our last trip I noticed that each morning two “browned – still young eagles” would circle our camp because I was cooking     breakfast in the open air.  I pointed this out to my son and came up with an idea that created a special occurrence that we both experienced the next morning.

 The next morning before I had started breakfast, I opened up a can of dog food; our dog is our best friend and we always take her along.   I placed the dog food in a plate and put that plate down on the large flat stump of a felled tree in the clearing next to our camp site. Then my son and I sat at the breakfast table and watched the skies. 

 As we sat there together in the open air looking up at the skies and preparing breakfast, soon came our two beautiful birds, circling slowly and eyeing the plate of food as they circled high above it.  As they circled down towards us, there appearance grew larger and larger…..so magnificent, so graceful, and so noble were they in their flight as they approached us.  Then suddenly one soared down, seemingly to hover over our breakfast table.  The wing span of this great young eagle was nearly 3ft, and the sound of the wind moving through the feathers of its great wings as it passed over our table could be heard smoothly and clearly as it slowly soared by above us.  As it soared past, about five feet above the table where we sat watching, this great eagle’s eye met mine and in that moment it was as if we were as one.

 At once, together we soared up into the high skies to meet the other waiting in the sky.  Then at once they both landed on the stump, standing together proudly as they looked at us and then began to eat.  It reminded me of the hope I have that one day; after our America has been totally cleared of corrupt political practices; it can again become the landing ground for the noblest of all birds ─ The Great American Eagle.   As we sat together speechless and in wonder I thought…

 Let me see and hear those words again…..”The Eagle Has Landed,” this time on its own ground which today seems to have become so alien to its people.    Let that landing be a re-birth of all things beautiful and majestic even as these, our two proud and noble friends in the skies.