Bald Eagle in Johnston & Schoolhouse ready to roll in Van Buren County

Tuesday morning my friend Michelle stopped by and asked if I wanted to go for a short bike ride with her in the neighborhood. I suggested we ride along the Beaver Creek bike path not far from our homes in Johnson. It was that gloriously warm morning, and I was wearing shorts along with a sweatshirt, as I sat outside with my laptop and coffee. When we were heading north along the path leading from 62nd, about half way to the bike path’s end, a man was stopped on the left, and as I slowed down he said, ” Did you see the bald eagle?” and he gestured up. I hadn’t, but looking up, I could see why he was stopped. I quietly and quickly got Michelle’s attention and whispered: “Stop.” Directly above us was this fine, single eagle. We stood in awe for about 5 minutes, and then, after I quietly asked Beautiful Eagle if he wanted to fly for us, he did! He glided to the northeast, over the Beaver Creek and toward Camp Dodge, allowing us to see the full extension of his wings and his white tail. Warmth and wonder brought at least three of us together in awe on that sunny suburban bike path on February 27th. We had to hurry and push to pedal back to our homes and our responsibilities, but that moment stayed with us and lifted our spirits then and even now as I remember how we had escaped our overly-developed neighborhood thanks to an eagle on high.

And last week in Van Buren County, on February 22, a chance viewing of an old one-room school house, ready to be moved, also caused me to stop what I was doing and wonder. I was driving east out of Birmingham on a gravel road when on my way to the farm northeast of Stockport. I had to stop, turn around, and drive back to the corner to get this photo. I told myself: “Do not drive on by, because it will not be here next time.” Where will it go? What will it become? Was it really the Winchester School as Greg’s father suggested when we talked about it later? (He grew up in Van Buren County, but I still don’t trust everything he tells me.) Will I be able to find out anything more about what’s going on with this building? I’ll drive by again tomorrow, and I’ll give it a try. We’ll see. I still haven’t named our backyard squirrel, but I did see one very high in one of our trees the other day, and I wondered if that squirrel was the same one who eats my apple peels in the mornings. These two seemingly random photos are connected by two unusually warm and sunny February days and by how arresting they were. Not going very deep, but I am working on noticing. It’s a start. As far as any more information about my upcoming walk in France, all I have is that I’ve been walking a little each day. Again, it’s a start, and I think sometimes that’s all we can do: just get started on dreams and keep noticing the beauty in front of us right here where we are. Or, as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings” – just one of his gems collected in A Child’s Garden of Verses. I have purchased this very edition and am working on reading all of it. Left the book with the grandchildren as I hope to read many of the poems to them!