Sally's Therapeutic Touch

Sharing this to read later.😊

Professional Vagus Nerve Certification Developed by John Wilks

A Young Eagle Failed an Early Flight Attempt. It Drifted Too Far From Its Mother. It Found the Closest Large Bird It Could See. A Swan. It Started Following Her Family. Months Later, It Was Spotted Again. Nearly Full Grown. Floating Calmly Beside the Swan Like It Had Learned a Completely Different Way to Live.
The first reports seemed like a mistake.
Park visitors near a quiet pond beside the woods started noticing something that did not make sense. A young eagle was following a swan family across the grass. Not circling overhead. Not watching from a distance. Following. On the ground. Staying close behind the cygnets as if it belonged with them.
Eagles do not belong with swans.
The relationship between these species is typically predator and prey. Eagles hunt waterfowl. Swans defend against eagles. The interactions that occur between them are adversarial, not familial. An eagle walking with a swan family contradicts everything that nature says should happen.
At first, people feared the eagle might be hunting.
The assumption was reasonable. A raptor following waterfowl usually intends to eat one of them. The cygnets that swam and waddled near their mother would be appropriate targets for a hungry young eagle. The presence of the predator seemed to signal danger.
But witnesses said it never lunged.
The eagle did not act aggressive. It did not display hunting posture. It did not focus on the cygnets in ways that suggested appetite. It simply followed. The behavior was strange enough that people watched longer than they normally would, waiting for the attack that never came.
It simply wanted to be near them.
Researchers who learned of the sightings developed a theory about what had happened.
The juvenile eagle may have failed an early flight attempt. Young eagles learning to fly often make mistakes. They misjudge distances. They lose altitude unexpectedly. They land in places they did not intend to land. The transition from nest-bound to airborne is not always smooth.
This eagle may have drifted too far from its mother.
The failed flight took it beyond the range where its parent could easily retrieve it. The young bird found itself alone in an environment it did not understand, without the guidance that eagles normally receive during development.
It needed something to follow.
And it found the closest large white bird it could see.
The swan.
The imprinting mechanisms that help young birds identify their species can misfire under unusual circumstances. A bird separated from its parents early enough may attach to whatever large, moving creature it encounters. The attachment forms regardless of whether the creature is the right species.
The eagle attached to swans.
The swan family apparently tolerated this attachment. The reasons for their tolerance are not documented, but swans are large and aggressive enough to drive away actual threats. An eagle that showed no hunting behavior may not have triggered the defensive responses that predatory behavior would have provoked.
The strange little family formed.
Eagle and swans moving together across the grass near the pond. The predator walking among the prey. The raptor following waterfowl as if it had forgotten what raptors are supposed to do.
The pond sat near a wooded area that limited visibility.
Sightings were rare. People who visited the park did not always pass the pond. People who passed the pond did not always look carefully at the birds present. The unusual family existed mostly out of observation.
After a while, they seemed to disappear.
Weeks passed without reports. The visitors who had first noticed the strange behavior assumed the arrangement had ended. Perhaps the eagle had left. Perhaps predatory instincts had eventually emerged. Perhaps the story was over.
Then came a stretch of hot sunny weather.
Visitors returned to the pond seeking shade and scenery. They looked across the water at the birds floating there. And they saw something that made them stop.
The eagle was back.
But it was no longer a small juvenile.
The eagle was nearly full grown now. The body had developed. The wingspan had expanded. The bird that had once been small enough to follow cygnets without threatening them was now a substantial raptor.
And it was floating calmly beside the swan.
Not flying overhead. Not perched in a tree. Floating. On the water. The way swans float. The way eagles do not typically float. The behavior suggested that the eagle had learned to live in ways that eagles do not normally live.
It had learned a completely different way to exist.
Researchers say the phenomenon is unusual but not impossible.
Young birds separated from their parents early can pick up behaviors from the animals around them. The learning that normally occurs from parent to offspring occurs instead from whatever species raises the orphaned bird. The behaviors that seem natural are actually acquired.
The eagle acquired swan behaviors.
Floating on water. Following larger birds. Moving as part of a group rather than hunting alone. The raptor that should have been learning to hunt had been learning to paddle.
The sight left visitors stunned.
A predator raised in peace. An eagle that had never learned to act like an eagle. A bird following the one creature that never treated it like a threat.
The swan had not rejected the eagle.
Whatever instincts swans have for recognizing danger had not activated against this particular eagle. The tolerance that began when the eagle was small and harmless continued as the eagle grew large and potentially dangerous.
The relationship persisted beyond the point where it should have.
Researchers believe the eagle will likely return to normal eagle behavior over time.
Instincts do not disappear because they were not exercised during development. The drives that make eagles hunt will probably emerge eventually. The raptor that floats with swans today may hunt waterfowl tomorrow.
But for now, the arrangement continues.
An eagle and a swan sharing a pond. A predator that never learned to prey. A prey animal that never learned to fear this particular predator. A relationship that biology says should not exist, existing anyway.
The failed flight that started the story created something unexpected.
The mistake that took the young eagle away from its mother took it toward a different life. The accident that could have been fatal became the beginning of something no one anticipated.
A new life.
Learned from swans.
Lived on a pond.
Floating where eagles do not typically float.
Following where eagles do not typically follow.
At peace in ways that eagles do not typically find peace.
The visitors who photograph the scene are documenting something rare.
Not just an eagle near swans, but an eagle with swans. The distinction matters. Proximity is common. Belonging is extraordinary.
This eagle belongs somewhere it should not belong.
And the swans have accepted that belonging in ways that should not be possible.
The failed flight led somewhere after all.
Not where the eagle's mother intended.
But somewhere.
A quiet pond beside the woods.
A family that does not match.
A predator that forgot how to prey.
A new life built from a failed beginning.
And the swan that never treated it like a threat.

Love this from our friend :

The plants are calling you...

They have a rich and diverse vocabulary and speak in many tongues. For the scientist the plant may speak in the complex language of chemicals and isolates; to the medicine person they speak in the multiversed language of healing; to the poet, they speak of beauty.

No matter what language you speak or comprehend, the plants will converse in a manner that you can understand, though it may take a listening ear and an open heart to hear them. Through their color, scent, medicine power, and beauty they seduce and entice us into the realm of our senses where we hear best their subtle language.

Many people, when they first begin working with plants, don’t recognize the language that plants use. They are listening for familiar words. But words are only one method of communication and, as most people discover, they are not always the best way to convey feelings or thoughts.

Ask anyone who has dug their hands deep in the dirt, planted seeds, harvested medicine, and taken time simply to get to know plants on their own turf, and they will tell you that plants communicate clearly if we but choose to listen.

~ Rosemary Gladstar

🌿💕 What are you hearing from the plants today? 💕🌿

Well, I decided to renew my lease at 1 Chick Springs Rd. Suite 111-b.
June 2026 marks 40 years that I have been practicing therapeutic massage!
And I am still learning!!

Brené Brown.
Another name to add to “sober people I admire.”

Yesterday marked my 30-year sobriety birthday, and I wanted to celebrate by sharing one gratitude for each decade.

1. My sobriety will always be the most important thing I do, because it allows me to fully love—and be loved by—the people who matter most in my life. I’m grateful for it every single day, even when it feels like a street fight.

2. Five years ago, a woman approached me in an airport and thanked me for writing about sobriety as a superpower. She said it helped her get sober. I’m grateful for all the people whose words helped me along the way. Before boarding her flight, she asked if I’d accept a gift from a stranger. I said yes. She handed me her first AA chip. I carry it in my purse every day. We were never strangers.

3. My favorite line from the AA Big Book reads: “That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we have been placed in a position of neutrality—safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.”

Understanding and keeping in fit spiritual condition has been a decades-long challenge for me. I wrote about it in the final chapter of Strong Ground and I thought I’d share that full chapter with you today as a “thank you.” To read, go to the home page of brenebrown.com.

Today I am sober af and I am grateful. ❤️

I have not looked at this page for a long time. - Sally