The Eagles Have Landed

It's been a busy holiday week of long workdays and little time off, so I decided to steal away for a couple of hours today in order for Larry and me to walk out at Devil's Lake.  Winter hasn't hit its stride yet in Wisconsin.  The sun was shining, the temperature peaked in the mid-40s, and there was only a bit of snow and ice to hamper our brisk pace.  A few others had the same idea, for we came upon a couple throwing snowballs at each other and a young foursome bravely and deftly swishing about on the little bit of solid ice near the shoreline.  Another group of young people skipped stones across the ice, while small children standing with their mom and dad at the boat landing chanted in their light, high voices back to the chattering crows overhead.  We walked behind a couple with a dog whose white coat blended in with its environs.  All the while, the waves of the open water crashed into the icy areas, causing a castanet-type of sound similar to the crackling of freezing rain against the windowpane.  Just when I thought it couldn't get more perfect, Larry and I looked up and saw two bald eagles swoop in and land high atop a pine tree, a sliver of moon already showing in the afternoon sky to their backs.  They spent a great deal of time talking to each other in high-pitched voices.  Larry tried to capture the scene using his cell phone camera but it couldn't do it justice, so we decided to simply etch the memory of that beautiful encounter in our minds.  Our respite from the everyday renewed our energy and made everything seem so right.