| Pick an Animal Mammals Birds Insects / Arachneds Reptiles / Amphibians Fish Bear Bobcat Jaguar Black Panther Cougar Tiger House Kitty Lion Wolf Dog Goat Chicken Turtle Lizard Mouse Mosquito Elephant Snake Spider Butterfly Ladybug Rabbit Deer Hawk Bluejay Eagle Gorila Panda Hippopotomus Bee Ant Fly Tick Horse Scorpian Buffalo Squiral Dove Cardinal Woodpecker Owl Peacock Falcon Dolphin Octopus Shark Cow These links are incomplet articles .. wording will be smoothed out in time. Feel free to look .. the information's good.. though does not as yet reflect what i see ....working on it.... please forgive the slowness of my progress .. life's issues |
| Dream Song of the Eagle Long before there was ever a long ago, a small village sat at the edge of a great wood. In this village a young girl was born, completely mute. She could not laugh. She could not cry. She could not speak or utter a sound. Because of this, she was often teased and shunned by both her family and the other people in the village. So the young girl did the only thing she knew to do to make herself feel better. She went to the woods. It was her safe spot...her haven. Only in the woods did she feel accepted. About the same time the young girl was born into the village, a young boy was born also. He could laugh, and shout, and speak ~~~ and make all manner of noise. But he did have something different about him as well. The boy was a little clumsy...a little out of rhythm with everyone and everything in the village. He was often tripping over his own feet or those around him. Because of this, he too was often the object of a great deal of teasing and ridicule. Even his own family would often roll their eyes and comment that if dust got in his way, he would trip over it. So he did what the young girl did as well. He went to the woods. It was one place where if he tripped or stumbled, no one ever seemed to mind. It was the one place was not teased. Because he and the girl shared this in common, they grew to be close friends. They would spend their days exploring the woods and seeking out new wonders. They would create games and adventures. They watched and studied everything they came across, and before long they knew more about the woods than anyone in their village had ever known. One day while they were exploring a new area of the woods, they heard a rustling in the bushes to their left. They slowly walked over and gently moved the bushes back, and there lying on the ground was a young eagle that had been shot through the shoulder. The eagle looked at them with eyes filled with pain and fear, but it was too weak to even try to escape. The boy and girl just stood still, their eyes wide in amazement. They had never seen an eagle up close before. Neither was sure what to do, and then the boy got an idea. "I know," he said. "We'll bandage it and make it better. It will be our friend." The girl just looked at him, not sure if that was something they should try to do. Then she motioned to the sky, telling her friend that maybe there might be a mother and father eagle that might come and take care of this one. The boy ignored her gestures and motions. The seed had been planted. He had already decided that he would save the eagle and it would become his best friend. And he began to look for something to wrap the eagle in. The girl took a deep breath, knowing what her friend was like when he got something stuck in his head, and she began to look around for some sign of a mother and father eagle or a nest. Not far from where they found the young injured eagle, she found the mother and father. They were laying behind an old tree...dead. Both had been killed. Her heart filled with sadness over the death of something so beautiful, wondering who could do such a horrible thing. Then she wiped the tears from her eyes and covered them with grasses and sticks. She truned away to tell her friend what she had found. She knew now that if the young eagle were to have a chance to live it would be up to the two of them. As she approached, he was carefully clearing away some of the brush around the eagle. She tapped him softly upon the shoulder, and he turned to look up at her. She shook her head and motioned softly with her hand. He frowned, understanding, and they both looked down at the eagle before them. The girl removed the shawl she had tied around her waist, and together they lay the shawl over the eagle and carefully wrapped. The eagle, weak with pain, did not struggle at all, and holding the bundled eagle between them, they began to carry it through the woods. They carried the eagle to a meadow not far from where they found it. This meadow was the one place in all of the woods that was the most special to them. It was their true haven. To them it was their true home. There they bandaged the eagle and built a cage for it. When it wouldn't eat on its own, they force-fed it, afraid it would die if they didn't. And on the way back to the village, they decided to keep it all a secret. They decided to tell no one about their find. Everyday they would rise early, making their way to the meadow. When they arrived at the meadow, they would change the eagle's bandages, clean its cage, and catch more food, trapping young mice and rabbits. Around the third day, it began to eat on its own, and the two began to breathe a little easier. The two spent as much time in the meadow with the eagle as possible. Everyday the eagle seemed to grow stronger and healthier. It was eating on its own. It was alert. It was even trying to stretch its wings throught the bandages. Around the forth week, they were up early as usual, making their way to the meadow. The sun had barely risen, and the grass was still wet with the dew. As they stepped into the meadow. They froze. The cage was wide open and the eagle was gone! They looked at each other and then began looking around the meadow. Both suspected that someone in the village had found out about their eagle and taken it away. As they looked around, their worry over someone from the village having taken it faded. There no signs that anyone had ever been in the meadow other than themselves. They were puzzled, and as they looked around trying to understand this mystery, the girl glanced up. And there she saw the eagle. High on a tree limb at the edge of the meadow above the cage, perched the eagle whose life they had saved. The bandage was off of its shoulder and draped over that limb. The girl nudged her friend. He looked at her and then looked at her looking up. When both pairs of eyes were looking, the eagle solemnly bowed to them. Their eyes widened in amazement! They didn't know much about eagles, but they didn't think eagles bowed to people~~much less children. But then it became stanger. The eagle fixed them both with his eyes and he began to speak. "I wish to thank you, my young friends, for having saved my life, but now it is time for me to go." Astounded that the eagle could speak, it was a moment before the boy answered, and then only at the nudging of the girl. "Why?" he asked. "Why must you go? You can stay here with us!" The eagle smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, my friends, but the people in your village have found out about me. They think you spend too much time here, and they intend to come here tomorrow and take me away." Both the boy and the girl got tears in their eyes, saddened by his words. "Don't be sad," the eagle continued. "You have performed a wonderful healing, and it is time for me to go. I too have a home, and it is time to return to the Land of the Eagles." Neither the boy nor the girl knew what to say to this magnificent bird. A lone tear rolled down the girl's cheeks. The boy sniffled, wiping his eyes, and then he got another idea! "Take us with you! Let us go with you to the Loand of the Eagles!" The eagle laughed softly. "No, I'm sorry. The Land of the Eagles is a great journey. In fact, I have to fly through the heart of the sun itself." "We don't mind. No one really likes us here! We won't be any trouble." The seed was planted, and the boy began to beg more. The girl urged him, seeing some hope in the request, her own eyes begging the eagle. "No one likes us...they treat us terribly...they don't even care most of the time where we are...you're back..." As the boy begged on, the eagle closed his eyes and thought for a moment. When he opened them, the two became silent. The eagle fixed his eyes upon them and spoke again. "I will give you the night to think about this. If you truly wish to make this journey, you must meet me here before the sun comes up tomorrow morning. But understand this: it is a long journey, and we will fly through the heart of the sun. If you make this journey, you may never be able to return again." The two looked at the eagle, mimicking his solemn look, and then they looked at each other. Grins burst upon their faces, and the two turned and dashed out of the meadow, running back toward the village. They sneaked into their homes and took what few belongings they thought they might need for their journey. Then they hid in the woods, spending the night so as not to be caught or delayed by anyone in the village. They hardly slept a wink the entire night. Long before the sun came up, they were awake and on their way to the meadow. As they walked into the meadow, the sun was coming up over the horizon. On an old tree stump in the middle of the meadow was the eagle whose life they had saved. He was stretching and flexing his wings, loosening them for the long journey ahead. As the children approached, he let his wings come to rest at his sides, and he bowed again to them. "I see you have made your decision," he said. Both grinned widely and bobbed their heads up and down, up and down. The eagle smiled briefly and then got more serious. "You must understand several things," he said. "This is a very long journey, and we will fly through the heart of the sun, you must close your eyes or the sun will be so bright that it will blind you. And also remember, that if you make this journey, you may never be able to return again." The two looked at each other, and hesitation only crossed their faces for a brief moment. And again they both nodded. "Then each of you climb upon one of my shoulders." As they climbed onto his back, his weight shifted, adjusting to the children there. He bent his knees and spread his tremendous wings. Then he leaped up, beating his wings with great speed and force, trying to rise with the children on his back. At first it didn't seem as if he would be able to lift them, but inch by inch he began to climb with the children hanging on tightly. Soon he settled into a steady beat of his wings, strong and smooth. He circled the meadow and then began climbing. As they reached treetop level, the children looked down off of the back of the eagle. They saw a line of villagers moving through the woods toward the meadow, and they knew that what the eagle had told them was true. They immediately began laughing, knowing they had gotten away. That laughter carried down from the back of the eagle, and the villagers looked up. They saw the young boy and girl on the back of that eagle. They started hollering and shouting up at them, but by that time the eagle had climbed so high their voices were lost in the wind. Still the eagle climbed higher. Befoer long, the eagtle and children disappeared into the heavens, and the eagle began the long journey toward the sun. He flew for what seemed an eternity to the children, and they behan to wonder if they would be able to last. Then they approached the sun. The eagle looked back over his shoulder at each of them, and he said, "Close your eyes." They closed their eyes, and the eagle passed through the heart of the sun! As they came out the other side, their eyes opened and they looked about them in amazement. A golden sky surrounded them. Below them was a beautiful, rich green land. And soaring, diving, and screeching around them were thousands of eagles! Slowly they began to circle down toward the land below. With a powerful flapping of its wings, the eagle landed softly in the grasses. The children slid off of his back and watches as all of the eagles dropped out of the sky and formed a cirle about about them on the grond. Then together they all bowed to the young girl and boy. The eagle whose life they had saved stepped forward. He stood before them, not saying a word, and thin with his wing he brushed under his beak and began to push it back. The children's eyes widened. This was nothing more than an eagle's head mask! Next he shrugged his shoulders and a suit of feathers dropped off of him onto the ground. This wasn't an eagle at all! Then all of the eagles surrounding them brushed back their eagle's head masks, shrugging off their own suit of feathers. The children stared, wide-eyed and then realized that this wasn't the Land of the Eagles. This was the Land of the Spirit People! The one whose life they saved looked at them and spoke softly and with great love: "in time, my young friends, we will make for you your own eagle's head mask. We will make for you your own suit of feathers. And we will teach you how to fly!" The next year and a day was the happiest the two had ever lived. They got their own eagle's head mask and their own suit of feathers, and they were taught how to fly. They would spend their days soaring and sailing through the clouds and over this beautiful land. At the end of that year and a day, the boy got another idea: "Wouldn't it be great to go back to the village now. Wouldn't it be great to show them what we can do? They'd treat us differently. They'd love us now. We're eagle people. We can fly!" The little girl shook her head vehemently. She wanted nothing to do with such an idea, but the seed was planted. The boy began to speak of it more and more. "They'll treat us differently. We can fly. They won't make fun of us. They are our true family...." The more he talked, the more he began to persuade the girl. Finally, he convinced her, and so one morning they arose befoer all of the others. They put on their suits of feathers and their eagle's head masks, and they took to the sky. Before long they disappeared into the heavens and began the long journey back through the sun to their village. They paused at the sun, looking at each other, and then flew straight on. They passed through the sun's heart, and when they came out the other side, they were circling their own village. It was morning in the village, and the people were just rising and lighting their cooking fires. They saw the shadows of two large birds circling on the ground. They looked up and saw two magnificent eagles soaring over head, descending toward the village. The villagers began running around, waking everyone up. This was a sign! This was something wondrous! The villagers gathered, watching as the two eagles descended and landed softly in their midst. The villagers backed up, unsure of what to do, but amazed at the wondrous sign that had come to them. The boy and the girl stood together ~~not moving~~ enjoying the moment. They looked at each other, and then each brushed a wing under the beak and pushed back the eagle's head mask. The villagers gasped! The two then shrugged their shoulders and the suits of feathers dropped off. No sooner had they taken their suits off, though, and the garments turned to dust at their feet. The villagers were stunned. These weren't eagles! These were the children! And they all began to speak at once. "This is wonderful!" "You are eagles!" "Show us how you flew!" "Yes, show us how you flew!" The two children looked at each other and then they looked at the dust of their masks and suits. They didn't know what to say or to do. And because they didn't know what to do, they did nothing. When they did nothing, the mood of the crownd shifted. The people began to grumble. "This is evil!" someone shouted from the back. "Bad magic!" someone else answered. Then someone picked up a stone and threw it at the two. The boy and the girl turned, their faces white with fear, and ran toward the woods. The villagers pursued, hollering, shouting, cussing, shaking their fists ~ angry enough to kill the children. The children ran, dodging, dipping in and out of the trees, over hidden paths. The only thing that saved them was that they knew the woods better than anyone in the village had ever known.. Still the villagers hunted them. The children moved, running and hiding every day for a week before the villagers gave up their chase. Though the villagers no longer pursued them, the boy and the girl knew that they could never return to their village again. And the warning from the one whose life they saved whispered hauntingly in their heads. Feeling more lost and alone than ever, they wondered the woods. The scavenged whatever food and berries they could find, and they slept in the hollows of old trees. They were alone. They knew their only choice was to leave their homeland forever. They decided though that before they would leave, they would make onle last visit to their meadow. As they stepped into the meadow, they saw what still remained of the cage they had built for the one whose life they had saved. Their eyes went to that tree limb high above them, where the eagle had stood the day they discovered the empty cage. Snagged on a branch was a small strip of cloth that had been used to bandage its wing. Then their eyes raised to the sky, hoping to see their friend. The sky was empty. They both plopped down in the tall grasses of the meadow and began to cry, neither trying to hide it from the other. Long after the crying had stopped and the two sat silently staring at the grass in front of them, the girl's heart jumped. She looked over at her friend. He stared quietly at the ground, his face streaked from earlier tears. She glanced around the meadow, and a soft wisp of a breeze brushed acrosss them. She raised her eyes to the sky. Far off was a tiny speck circling. She caught her breath, and her heart jumped again. This time the boy felt her heart jump. He looked at her, and then looked at her, and then looked at her looking up. He caught his own breath. Slowly that speck began to circle down. When it reached treetop level, they both jumped up from the ground. It was the eagle! The one whose life they had saved! They both began to cry again, as the eagle landed on that same tree limb high above them. The boy was jumping up and down, shouting, "Yes, we can go back! We can go back!" The girl's face was filled with tears of hope and joy once more. The eagle looked on them with sad eyes and then shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, my young friends, but you can never return again." He paused, and then continued. The two paled at his words, feeling their hearts crash once more. "But you did save my life, and because you saved my life, there is still something that I can give you." With his beak, he reached in under his wing and dropped out from under it into the hands of the girl ~a flute. He then fixed his attention on her. "With this flute, you will learn to speak. The sound you make with it will call the wind, and the wind that you call will bring me from the other side of the sun to the sky above you. It is this Song of the Wind that I will bring to you in your dreams. But it will bring me no closer than the sky above." Then he turned to the boy, and reaching under his other wing with his beak, he dropped out from under it into his hands a rattle. "I will come also into your sleep. I will teach you a new rhythm, and I will sing you a song. When you can bring that rhythm and the ancient Song of the Eagles out of your sleep, it will be that song and that rhythm that will call me from the sky above to where I now stand." He paused, and looked at both of them with great love. "Only when the two of you can do this together, will I give you the last thing I have to give. I will teach you the language of animals. I will teach you how to talk with Nature!" Before they could say a word, the eagle jumped, spreading his wings and began to climb and quickly disappeared into the heavens again. The boy and girl looked at each other and then at what the eagle had dropped into their hands. The girl brought the flute to her mouth and blew softly, not knowing at all how to make it sound. Nothing came forth. It was silent. The boy looked at the rattle in his hands and frowned, thinking, "This is a baby's toy. What am I going to do with this?" That night while they slept, the eagle visited them. The girl's dreams were haunted with the soft song of the flute and winds blowing around her. The boy heard the sound of a rattle, like that of a snake. and he heard a song being chanted. When they awoke in the morning, they looked at eachother and knew. What the eagle had told them was true. The girl began to experiment, trying to get a sound out of the flute. The boy tried to remember the rhythm of the rattle and the song that was chanted in his dreams, but is was to no avail. No soonner would they open their eyes from the sleep, and the songs would fade back into the dreamtime. They could not bring them forth. Many days passed, and the girl woke up early, the haunting song of the flute still a soft echo in her mind. She could hear her young friend next to her. She knew he was curled around the rattle, for she could hear it moving softly in his sleep. He was mumbling the dream song that was being sung to him. She decided that today would be the day. With her eyes still closed, trying to hold the fading echoes of the flute sounds from her own sleep, she sat up and brought the flute to her lips. She placed her fingers over the holes, and blew softly. Nothing. She adjusted the flute and tried again. Nothing. She blew a little harder, steadier. The flute sounded! It was a squeaky sound, but it was a sound! She blew it againk and this time when it sounded, a breeze brushed across her. It worked! She blew a series of squeaks, each of which brought its own gust of of breeze. She began to cry softly, and it was then that she heard the boy sitting up next ot her. Each opened their eyes, and looked at each other. She blew the flute and a breeze brushed them both. He grinned at her, and the girl's eyes widened. The flute dropped away from her mouth. She stared at his hand. The boy looked down, and his hand was bouncing the rattle with a steady rhythm ~ almost of its own will. He had the rhythm! They began to laugh and cry at the same time. Now they understood what the eagle had told them. Only when they could do it together would he return. Another week passed and still the girl was not able to bring the Song of the Wind from her sleep. She practiced and practiced, and though the sounds were smoother, she could not quite bring the true song from her sleep. She could create gusts and breezes, but nothing steady. And nothing like what came to her in her sleep. The boy struggled also to bring his dream song into the waking time, but it wouldn't happen. He slept with the rattle in his hand. He carried it everywhere with him. Even though he had not tripped or stumbled once since he had the rhythm, when he awoke, the ancient words being sung to him would fade to nothingness. Again the girl woke early one morning. The Song of the Wind was a little louder in her head, and she kept her eyes closed trying to hold onto it. She could hear the boy's rattle dancing in his hand while he slept. She could hear him mumbling ancient words being sung to him in his sleep. She blocked him out, and reached slowly for her flute. She brought it up to her lips, listening intently to the song in her head. She took a deep breath and began to blow softly. The music was soft and smooth, and a breeze rose up immediately. She tried to ignore it, playing the music she heard more clearly with each breath. The breeze grew steady, and she began to smile while she played. She had the song! They boy's rattle began to dance more clearly. The words from the song in his sleep began to be whispered. The wind grew stronger still. He sat up next to the girl, and though her eyes were still closed, she knew he was awake. The rattle moved and he began to whisper the ancient dream song to her. Their eyes opened, and they grinned at eachother. Slowly, while she continued to play and the boy sang softly the words that had been sung to him so often in his sleep. Their eyes were fixed on the sky above them. Then, high in the heavens, a tiny speck appeared and began circling down. Their eyes began to tear, and they both stood up. The girl continued to play and the wind swirled around them. The boy looked directly up at the eagle and began to sing loudly and clearly. He began to sing the eagle down to earth. Slowly the eagle circled the treetops and then landed on the tree limb above them. The girl lowered her flute, and the boy quit his song, tears on both their cheeks. They gripped each other's hands tightly. The winds died down around them. The eagle looked down from the tree at them with great love and pride, and he bowed to them once more. "You have learned well, my young friends, but today the lessons truly begin. From this day forth I will teach you the language of Animals. I will teach you how to speak with the Nature. From this day forth your home will be among the woods and streams. Your family will be the creatures that abound with thin the world. Never more will you be outcast.... above is from the book Animal Wise by Ted Andrews |
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| IMMATURE GOLDEN EAGLE IN FLIGHT |