Believing in a pair baldies

Yesterday, God visited.

I was on the phone.

I have call waiting, but God wasn't trying to break through on 'call waiting'. No sir, He came to me in real time.

I didn't see God at first. But then I usually don't. I was too busy talking to an Albertan Cattle Rancher, one of my best friends about all things mad cow, the future of the future and of course the past, namely my recently failed relationship. So I admit that at first I wasn't paying attention. I never heard Him. I did hear a shrill echoing voice . At first it didn't register.

I was too absorbed in the difficult realities I face. The messy cleanup of that awkward realization that the man I thought I knew really well, I didn't know at all. Its such a familiar song isn't it? We think we know someone and...you can almost fill in the blanks to that one can't ya. It's the stuff of Country Western Songs 101.

I looked out the window and right at eye level, gliding just feet away from the edge of the cliff bench, two bald eagles, beautiful, and wise, rolling low, and easy coasted. I stood, breathless.

"You still there Tim?" Hank asked tentatively.

"Uh, yeah. Hank, but I shit you not, there are a pair of Bald Eagles right outside the window. Hold on I'm going outside to watch them."

I ran out onto the deck, carrying the cordless phone in one hand, my digital camera in the other, and described to Hank the sight of the Eagles as they suddenly shot high up over head. They circled right over me, once. Twice. Three times.

"that's a good sign Tim. That's a real good sign." Hank was quiet for a minute. "Two of 'em eh?"

"Yes, two."

"A pair. I like that. It means your going to be ok Tim. I would say, there is someone out there waiting for you. Three circles overhead? Well we both know three's a charm."

So what was up with that? My Albertan Cattle Rancher friend was suddenly going all Shirley McClaine on me. Visions, symbols from God and sightings of the things we can't see. Had Hank spent too much time on the prairie? Was he delirious before calving had even started?

"You really think so?"

"Yes Tim I do. I don't think your going to be alone. I think you got your sign."

I wanted to be optimistic, but right then I wasn't feeling all that good about anything. If God was up there, riding those devil updrafts, and geo thermals, and he was trying to reassure me, I'd like to believe this was a divine sign-yep I would.

The eagles drifted east over the river, toward the Idaho State Line, and I watched them until I could see those glorious creatures no more. Hank and I continued our discussions, and although we never figured our lives out, still I hung up the phone feeling a bit better about things.

I mean its not often, that God makes house calls.