A Gift of Wonder

The eagles began in the place where God defeats understanding with wonder. The tree began with a seed that came in a pod that traveled from the shores of Africa. The eagles and tree came together after a storm brought an opportunity, but the tree and the massive canopy of ferns were a gift from a falling friend who was hoping for something to outlive his sorrow.

The house was not a home until the tree began to flourish and shelter the man and the wife with the shade that is always a gift in the tropics. When the hurricane ravaged the island, the towering canopy lost its African blooms, and the leaves that could feather the wind, but after the canopy became an open structure with a chance to start over, the two eagles landed and began to study the tree.

Most of the big trees were torn open after the storm. Beneath the growth that was still standing, the scattered wreckage was as widespread as the ocean surrounding the island. The eagles knew it was time for a survey and a new home, just as they knew to fly far from the gathering wind and the vortex of destruction.

At first, the eagles sat quietly near the top of the tree that was living but broken and listened for danger. After the crucial moments of silence and listening were passed, the eagles, who had chosen each other, broke into a dialogue of warbles, garbles, and melodic notes that were far too complex to be anything but a language.

For the man who lived in the home—who planted the tree that was the gift from the falling friend —the arrival of the eagles was the granting of a wish he never knew he wanted. After the devastation of the most wicked hurricane in a hundred years, the eagles were chanting and singing a melody to each other. The melodic warbles drifting down from the height of the broken tree were announcing that life was ready to start again.

When the man on the ground became a captive of the overwhelming wonder, he became aware of the very moment the sunshine and the breeze began to slow and then stop. The man knew to avoid movement, and he was careful to remain in hiding from the eagle’s private exchange and scrutiny, but he also knew—in the same perfect instant—that he was watching a miracle.

After the medley of the warbles did not stop, and the intimate language of the two aviators continued, the man who suddenly felt like a spy was torn. He wanted to run for his wife and share the gift of wonder, but he was afraid that time would start again and the moment vanish. In the end, the man stayed in hiding until the eagles broke into a flight that was so sudden it became the thief of all the earlier moments.

During the weeks after the hurricane and the arrival of the eagles, the weather was warm, and the tree began to thrive with a new vitality. When the eagles suddenly returned to the same perch where they had first landed, the man, when he saw them, could not stop his smile.

After the warm wind that cradled the water began to veer from the south and settle on the north quarters of the compass, the birds began to return with an accuracy that was uncanny. Because the tree was once again heavy with the leaves that were like ferns, the eagles soon forced an entrance into their hidden lair, where the nest began.

The nesting couple was clearly acting on the decision they had made together. After the sunsets began to land sooner every day, a determined tangle of airlifted lumber began to resemble a design of triangles that was another source of wonder.

During the construction of the home in the tree that was above and beside the home for the man and his wife, all life began to flourish with a newfound energy. The eagle’s home must remain a secret, the man and the wife knew, because any infringement on the family that was coming would somehow become a breach of trust. The tree and the canopy would guard the home from outsiders, and on the day before the nest was complete, and the airlifting flights for finishing a masterwork were over, the two eagles sat during a sunset on the lowest branches and met the gaze of the humans who thought they were hiding. After only a moment of silence, everyone understood. There was a secret to guard—just like the first moments, on the first day after the hurricane, which would always be a moment of wonder.

The birds were private in their rituals and courtship, and they were the definition of stealth when they daily burst out of the canopy of ferns. The wife knew the new life, and the eggs were present when the incredibly strong aviators set watch and never left the nest without a mother or father in attendance.

The little ones came at Christmastime, and the obvious fuss over the hatchlings by the two masters of aviation was once again a new source of wonder. The family episodes that followed into the New Year were comical, worrisome, and wonderful all at once, but the beauty of the new life after the retrospect of the hurricane was a secret that the eagles, the man, and the wife kept together.

From the eagle’s first landing and survey to the moment the two fledglings broke from the tree and began to soar and search for the first time, a scene after a tragedy became A Gift of Wonder.