I returned to Minnesota after more than a week in South Dakota to find the lakes unfrozen and the buds on the honeysuckles and lilacs swelling and showing green. Spring is inching forward in spite of the large-flaked snow squall we had this morning. The day before I left for South Dakota, I checked in on the eagle nests to see if the eaglets had hatched.
One of the parents was on the first nest, lying low with no activity. Still brooding eggs?
Both parents were on the second nest.
One was laying on the nest, and the other was watching me and taking bites from the carcass of some kind of animal.
The parent eagle who was laying on the nest stood up and flew away, circling the sky over the trees and river. It was only then that I saw a little gray head pop up in the nest!
The other parent began to tear off pieces of the carcass and feed the downy eaglet.
Another little gray head appeared in the nest, hungry for the food being offered.
I remember those days, three times over, when our babies started eating food while still getting most of their sustenance from breast milk. We would strap them into the wooden high chair so they wouldn’t slip off the seat, propped up in the soft cover on the chair. With the long-handled, plastic coated spoon, we dipped into the creamy oat cereal. And once the initial learning curve of eating from a spoon was overcome, their tiny mouth would open as the spoon made its way from the bowl. Parent hand-baby mouth coordination. And they would eat until the satiety hormones announced their fullness, when more cereal would ooze out of their mouth than be ingested. With a full belly and a cleaned up face, they would go on to the next big thing in a baby’s life.
Watch as the parent eagle feeds the babies, bite by bite. When one piece comes off the carcass too big for the little ones, the parent steps on the piece to try to tear it into smaller bits. When the babies seem full, the parent eats the last piece, then settles down in the nest with the two eaglets. (The camera was zoomed out with no tripod in the wind, so please excuse the movement.)
One cannot overestimate the loving care a parent of any species has for their young. I have watched horses, cows, sheep, dogs, cats, ducks, and even mice protect and care for their babies. The eagle parents work as partners in the full-time job of providing food, loving attention, and care for their eaglets. What can we learn from these beautiful, powerful birds of prey? We are blessed and privileged to provide for our own children as they grow, but many times we are also called to care for aging parents, sick or disabled family members or friends, or to be the caretakers of animals. Caretaking demands that we look outside of ourselves, and we realize that service to others fills the collective coffers of the world. In our giving and our selflessness, we receive more than just the tangible benefits of a healthy child, a happy parent, a healing sister, or a hearty flock of animals. We become an integral part of the Goodness in this world, and our soul soars to a place beyond the tree tops.
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