Land of the Eagles

This is my article that Shall appear in the Valley Times-News  West Point Times-News this week.

Some of it may look familiar if you follow my blog.  Check out the earlier posts for the pictures of the fire.

Land of the Eagles

What an amazing day on the Hooch: blue sky, birds singing, owls hooting, geese floating by, and Rock Man playing with fire.  Just  had the annual brush burn and “this girl was on fire”, literally, burned a hole in my hoodie with a spark.  Rock Man warned me to wear cotton.  You can be really late to a brush burn event if you search for something you own that has zero(0)  “other fibers” on the label.  Fortunately, I caught it quick since I thought it was a dreaded, could be deadly ,yellow jacket stinging me.  Yellow jackets have cured my snake phobia.  I don’t even think of snakes now—I’ve only seen three living ones in the nearly twelve years of river living—but yellow jackets are another story.  Those things are mean, can fly, and come in groups to attack.  I’m so glad that the three snakes I’ve seen didn’t fly or appear in a group.  They weren’t even mean. 

Back to my river day… April is definitely going down in the books as a favorite month.  How about that blue sky? I have a tulip that bloomed. Yes, I said “a tulip”. Of course, I haven’t planted any in several years. This isn’t Holland.  I do have many sets of beautiful tulip leaves.   Our yard is filled with things Duke Boy has moved around to give them a new lease on life.  We hope that changing their “feng shui” will encourage new growth—like moving your chair to a new place in the room so you can see the TV better.  Packets of zinnia seed and a two new ferns for Duke Boy are our only flower purchases, so far.   We do need to visit the land of Frankie & Frank for pine straw soon.  A delivery of about 20 bales will be a good start if you’re reading this. 

Another highlight of my weekend was seeing Eagles.  The kind with feathers was flying over the river while we were burning brush.  I also saw one yesterday flying over near the trestle while I was eating lunch at Roger’s.  Great view from the front window while I ate my yummy steak sandwich.  The rest of the Eagle story is my nephew, Matt, who’s Matthew to me but when you have a popular Boy Scout name then you have to become Matt in your troop, received his Eagle pin on Sunday.  Neat to see the young man he has become and the bridge that was his Eagle project for his community.  It was also great to have a family gathering that didn’t happen due to a funeral.  It’s easy to see why the Eagle was chosen to represent the level of accomplish for Matt since he will surely reached heights equal to those of his feathered namesakes. 

Our Advisory Board asked to share with you that the Pastoral Institute has contracts with many companies in the area where employees can come for counseling services at no cost to the employee.  We also offer Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) to companies where stressful incidents occur: bank robberies, deaths at the business, and shootings just to name a few.  Last year we provided this service to a local company after an incident. If your company is interested in learning more about these services you can contact me for more information. 

Go out and enjoy these beautiful days on our beautiful river and remember to look up and out because you might see an eagle flying or walking by.

Karen Erwin-Brown is the director of the Valley office of the Pastoral Institute.  She provides individual, marriage and family counseling by appointment only.  Call 334-768-2341 to make an appointment or for more information.