Twelve Hundred Seventeen

 

December 25, 2020

7.67 Miles in 1:19:37

Mood: EAGLE! A CHRISTMAS EAGLE!!!
Soundtrack: Rich Mullins "A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band"

After a lovely Christmas morning with the family, I decided to get in an afternoon run at Wash Park, and I was so glad that I did. The world was full of the type of warmth which pretty much you only feel on Christmas. It was a beautiful day, and on my first lap around the park, I noticed a large group of people on the north end of the park looking up and taking pictures. I stopped, and looked, but couldn't see what they were staring at. I walked over to a fellow and asked if he wouldn't mind telling me what we were all looking at. He said it at almost the exact moment that I found it for myself..."There's a bald eagle up there!"

It was very cool, and on my second lap, I stopped and looked again, because although I had literally seen a bald eagle much closer up at the zoo the day before, there is something special about seeing a wild one just chilling in the park. On my third lap, he seemed to be gone from the grove of trees, and I was a little bummed, but figured that it couldn't go on forever, then I saw him sitting on a bare branch over Smith Lake, just soaking in the late afternoon sun. I took a lot more pictures, one of which you see here, and felt like God had given me an extra Christmas present in the form of a park eagle.