Look for the Light
“ When you stay on purpose and refuse to be discouraged by fear, you align with the infinite self in which all possibilities exist.”
~ Dr. Wayne Dyer
I have a confession. I’ve been harboring a secret fascination. What started out as a simple guilty pleasure this past winter, morphed into a full-blown addiction during spring. However, I don’t regret a minute of my indulgence. As a matter of fact, the entire experience has rooted me back into cosmic reality and provided me an opportunity to witness a much-needed display of courage and hope.
Before I come clean, let’s get some things out there.
The past six months have been fiery. With no shortage of opposing beliefs and opinions infiltrating our psyches and the psyches of our friends, families, neighbors, communities, workplaces, and homes, it’s been challenging to create space around the rhetoric in order to identify what’s genuine and in the best interest of the higher good.
But, before we allow ourselves to get caught up in all the contradictions, let’s take a moment to recognize we exist in a world of duality. To every front, a back, to every up, a down, to every in, an out, top a bottom, empty, full, dark and light, black and white… kind and unkind. It’s a universal law, and one we simply can’t argue with.
So, during the later part of January on the eastern edge of our country, while officials were doing official things, declaring new declarations, and overtly fanning the flames of disparity, in a parallel time on the opposite side of our country, esoteric archetypes of freedom and liberty were covertly positioned at the tip top of a Jeffrey Pine high above Big Bear Lake in California.
Jackie and Shadow, a wild female and male bald eagle, seasonally occupy a 5 foot wide x 6 foot deep nest located 145-feet up in this magnificent tree. Jackie, who is believed to be the first eaglet hatched in Big Bear Valley in 2012, took over this abandoned nest in 2017 beside a live-stream camera that had previously been installed by Friends of Big Bear Valley extending us an invitation to shift our attention and witness the daily interactions of these majestic birds.
I became familiar with Jackie and Shadow during the winter of 2023, and again in 2024, with both years resulting in clutches but no eggs hatching, leaving the birds, and the viewers, myself included, mournful. Since becoming mates in 2018, Jackie and Shadow have laid at least 14 eggs with only 6 hatching and 4 surviving into adulthood.
Then in January of 2025, after back-to-back years of disappointment, Jackie laid three eggs. I was thrilled! Could it be? After two years of loss and sadness, would their eggs actually hatch this time? I was fully invested in their outcome, and so my fixation began.
Sparing you the dramatic details including but not limited to brutal snowstorms, aggressive predators, and the countless hours spent taking turns incubating their eggs, I, along with tens of thousands of others, tuned into Jackie and Shadow tv every day for 39 days waiting with bated breath for their babies to hatch.
And hatch they did!
Sunny hatched on March 4th, and Gizmo on March 8th. Unfortunately, to our dismay, Misty, the third eaglet, did not survive.
Photos courtesy of Friends of Big Bear Valley.
During these past six months, I’ve thought a lot about freedom, courage, hope, and liberty. I’ve thought about divisiveness and all the opposition that seems to be swirling around taking up a lot of space.
As I generally do when I have big things to ponder, I took my thoughts and questions to the trees as they are my most formidable council. While gazing up and observing the contrast between the lush green canopy partnered with the brilliant blue sky, I was gently reminded of the universal laws of duality. I was reminded there is a necessary interdependence of contrasting elements in order for our world to exist and function. Yin and Yang… seemingly opposite but intrinsically interconnected.
So, as I lamented on the forest floor, it occured to me why I and so many others have been compelled to keep coming back day after day to check in on Jackie and Shadow’s journey.
Jackie and Shadow reflect everything we innately know to be true and are craving to be reassured of. Their story is a bright spot in an otherwise darkened time. Through witnessing their determination, celebrations, heartbreak, mutual care and consideration, generosity, and consistently nurturing the skill set required for their eaglets to successfully leave the nest, they have given us an imperative lesson on how to stoically navigate the path of the human condition through the lens of genuine leadership.
I was drawn to their love story and became emotionally invested. From nest-keeping, raising their young, protecting themselves against predators and the elements, to coping with the loss of one of their eaglets, they reminded me what authentic collaboration and selflessness look like. Jackie and Shadow’s resilience in facing their numerous challenges offered a sense of perseverance and hope. Their journey was an opportunity to look up and notice that Mother Nature had no agenda other than to offer an honest and full experience of an earthly life.
I cried like a baby the days Sunny and Gizmo fledged the nest. I don’t know if it was my mom heart feeling for Jackie or my little girl heart feeling for Sunny and Gizmo, but watching those beautiful birds find the courage to fly free for the first time held a message for us all.