The walk that fed my soul.

Well, it turns out, I did neither (see previous post). Before I even logged off of the computer, Stefanie asked me if I wanted to go for a walk and as it turned out, that was exactly what I wanted to do.

We wandered up the street. Other than the house next door, the lots are all empty. They have the beginnings of paved driveways that end abruptly in a pile of dust and dirt just five feet onto the property. The trees are tall and beautiful and are interspersed with the unmistakable red bark of the arbutus trees that pepper the coastline here. Ok, that's it for my poetic writing.

We saw an older couple at the top of the first little hill, sitting on a rock and drinking beer. He was throwing rocks as far as he could and they were laughing and happy. As we walked past they were both saying "battah-battah-battah-battah-suhwwwiiiinnnggg battah!" We exchanged pleasantries and once we were out of earshot, Stef and I speculated that they were sitting there dreaming about the house they are going to build on that lot.

We meandered up and down the hills and talked about life, love, God and nature. I told Stefanie that this was so exactly what I wanted to be doing and that these kinds of walks totally feed my soul and make me happy. We turned around and planted ourselves on a rock looking out at the view and sat there talking and baking in the sun.

The property in front of where we were sitting dropped off in a steep cliff so that the lower branches of the tallest trees were at about eye level for us. I pointed to the tree directly ahead and said, "Dear God, please send us an eagle that will swoop down behind us so we can hear it's wings and have it land on that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

About 5 seconds later a robin swooped in and landed on the equivalent branch on the tree beside the one I pointed to. ST and I looked at each other in surprise.

"Dear God, good job! Now, please send us an eagle and have it land on that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

The "sincerely, kt." made Stef and I both erupt in giggles.

Again, about 5 seconds later another robin swooped in and landed on the branch below the one I was pointing to. ST and I looked at each other again in amazement and we laughed.

I need to point out here that it wasn't like these were two robins of many. These were the only two robins to have landed in these trees the whole time we were sitting there.

"Dear God, excellent job, thank you! This time I want you to really blow my mind and send us an eagle to that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

We giggled and waited. After a minute or so, I said "I guess sometimes you have to wait to get what you ask for". We sat and talked and after another few minutes all of a sudden Stefanie exclaimed, "Oh my God, look over there!"

Over to our right and behind us a bit, an eagle was swooping in. It stayed to our right though and landed in a tree a few lots away. We figured that was the eagle that God sent us, so we decided to walk over there. It took us a minute to find the eagle in the tree but we did and it wasn't alone. It was in a nest with at least one other eagle.

We stood and watched it for a while. It swooped out of the nest and flew right past where we had be sitting and then curved back around to come back to it's nest. It flew in a tight bend around a tree and we heard a loud snap! It had a rather large twig in it's talons and was flying back home. We watched it do this another 2 or 3 times. Each time we were in awe and thankful to be watching such an amazing thing.

We walked back up the hill and found the rock that the couple had been sitting on. It was the perfect rock for two so Stef and I sat down on it. To the left of my foot, one of them had arranged 4 twigs into a square and I pointed it out to Stefanie. My gaze shifted more to the left and I noticed more twigs in shapes. It spelled something. I love poo too.

We laughed and laughed and reframed our impression of couples in their 50's.

We sat there for a while longer and finally headed back to the house. It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful afternoon and I am so glad that Stefanie suggested it.