When An Eagle Shows Up

This big bird showed up late last week.
ON OUR OSPREY NEST.
My husband thinks it's great -- I suppose he figures the ospreys aren't returning -- but I'm annoyed because
a) it's the ospreys' nest
b) I want the ospreys to return
c) eagles will eat chickens -- which we have -- while ospreys only eat fish
I haven't grabbed my lawn chair and scared the eagle out of the nest but I'm not happy about this development.

On the other hand, there is this to consider:
A few years ago, while interviewing a woman for a Field Notes column, I discovered she has a gift for deep communication. That's the easiest way to describe it, but by the end of our conversation, she had informed me that the eagle is my spirit bird.
I've been resisting ever since because
a) she told me this in the summer of 2015, shortly after an eagle killed all three of that summer's osprey fledglings and I was feeling hateful towards eagles
b) an eagle is a powerful bird and a potent symbol - way too much responsibility for me
c) I'd been told something similar when I was 24 but didn't understand this stuff back then so it didn't sink in -- but as soon as this woman told me, all of a sudden, appearances of an eagle in my life flooded into my memory -- too many at particularly significant times to ignore

Needless to say, I've been a little freaked out ever since. But I also got over my hatefulness towards eagles and that seems to have settled them down. This woman told me the eagle attacked the osprey babies to get my attention.
They could have just flown over and dropped a poop bomb on me.

This is a story I haven't shared before because it's very personal (this is just the bare bones of it, really). But suffice it to say, I pay attention to this stuff now, and this eagle started sitting in the osprey nest, which is about as close to our house, and me, as you can get when you're a large bird of prey, just at a time when I needed to keep my focus on my novel editing.
I think the eagle appeared at this particularly significant time as a reminder that I must not be distracted by other people's drama, and situations I can't control. I must keep my (eagle) eye on my purpose and my goal. I must not waste my creative energy on anything other than my writing.
What a powerful bird like this is telling me is, "Do not give away your power to others."
Whew.
It makes my heart beat faster to write that, to put that truth out into the world. But this year is all about "becoming what I was always meant to be" so if an eagle is my guide along that scary-exciting journey, lead on, my large feathered friend.
And I must admit, it's not bad having a friend with those talons and that beak in my corner.