Today, outside our windows, the sun is shining and there is a breeze carrying hints of summer on the air. Even the temperatures are providing us a bit of those early, soon-to-be-here summer vibes. Because it has been a busy week that has brought us outside our house every day until today, it’s been quite nice to treat today as a bit of a vacation day, from school, from too many chores, from the busyness. While the girls each did some independent reading, we haven’t focused on a whole lot of school today, or this week, actually (I always count our counseling/OT appointments as part of our school efforts here). Even so, I’ve noticed there are always hints of learning taking place mainly wrapped in our teenagers’ innate sense of curiosity.
Much of the time, their curiosity inspires questions and conversations around myriad subjects, some on the serious side, like how people can hurt and hate other people based on things like the color of someone’s skin, and some fall on the more lighthearted end of the spectrum, like the origin of an idiom or the current age of an author or favorite character tropes. Some of my favorite moments with my teenagers are built around these more lighthearted questions and curious queries. My most recent favorite topic is one that thousands of others share—watching the bald eagles in Big Bear Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. If you have yet to tune into the live stream of Jackie & Shadow and their two eaglets, Sunny & Gizmo, you are definitely missing out.
It’s rare for a full day to go by without me calling up the live stream on my laptop and leaving it running so we can keep tabs on what this favorite eagle family is up to. We started our viewing back in early March, just as the eggs began hatching (at that time, there were three chicks, but a surprise snowstorm left Jackie & Shadow with only the two eaglets currently in the nest). As part of our daily viewing routine, we try to determine which eagle is which (we still haven’t figure it out), we named the chicks before they got their official names (dubbing one after our food-loving cat, Zuzu, because that chick, too, seemed obsessed with food), and we have noted their growth and change (sometimes comparing the eaglet teens to our teens because of how much they tend to sleep, or, as my older teen likes to point out, eat, sleep & poop because apparently all teenagers are the same).
And as my teenagers have watched these eaglet teenagers, I have enjoyed their commentary as well as their company. Even more, I have enjoyed our learning together some fascinating facts about eagles, especially the way eagle parents care for their young. Together we have learned about the fledging process and that even after the eaglet fledges, they still rely on their parents as they learn to hunt independently and will roost near their nest until they are better fliers. Even after they leave, younger eagles tend to return to the familiar area where they hatched. I find all of this not only fascinating, but lovely. And it reminds me that even in the wild, parenting is a process. For me, it’s a process that provides us with a richness in the simple pleasures that bring us together and allow us to enjoy one another’s company, even as my own teenagers continue to stretch their own wings and consider their own journeys. But for right now, this shared journey is one worth celebrating each and every day.
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