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This week's life note, Eagle eyed inspiration.

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Welcome to Life Notes from Chair 17,

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a podcast dedicated to sharing life stories,

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wisdoms and inspirations as we navigate life's journey,

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post chas to share thoughtful perspectives and insights from her own life journey.

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As well as those of special guests, contributors tune in for thoughtful conversations about lessons learned wisdoms,

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gained experiences, had and inspirations shared.

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Find us where you get your podcasts and be sure to hit follow or subscribe.

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So you never miss an episode. Now enjoy this week's episode.

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Alrighty, welcome back in friends to another episode of Life Notes from Chair 17.

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I'm your host ch Thank you once again for finding me in this corner of the podcast universe returning c 17 hours.

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Thank you so much as always for your continued support.

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Sincerely appreciate you tuning in each week and a warm welcome to those of you who may have just found us on a major podcast platform or via our website out on Life Notes from chair 17 podcast.com.

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A warm welcome to you, appreciate you tuning in.

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Hopefully you will like what you find and want to stick around and we thank everybody for helping us continue to build our C 17 community.

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So this episode follows our share the chair episode that we did with Colleen Coleman and just want to thank everybody who checked out that episode.

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The response has been really good, including which I'm sentimentally really appreciating the renaming of the series.

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Just share the chair sidebar.

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I do have plans to tell the story of the actual chair 17 in an upcoming episode since folks have expressed interest in learning more about what is up with the chair.

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And our 17th episode is coming up so small preview there.

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Uh Fair warning though, that's probably going to be a walk down childhood memory lane.

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So hopefully you will tune in and enjoy that one.

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And I will say uh having had the opportunity had various,

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well, let's call it markers in my life to be able to interview people.

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Colleen is what I call very interview genic.

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So think the same as photogenic,

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which she also is uh she's very at ease in conversation.

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And when you are an interviewer or a moderator that always makes the job a lot easier and it leads to a conversation that develops very naturally and organically in the moment,

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which in my opinion is always the best kind of conversation for any kind of quote unquote interview.

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And my style is always to try to make interviews feel like a conversation,

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not just a series of questions uh that don't have the ability to expand on some of the answers that uh the guest is giving.

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So aside from our c 17 questionnaire,

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which is intended to be a rapid fire uh way to close the interview,

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um I appreciate that those of you are enjoying that style and I look forward to bringing on more guests uh as the year moves on.

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And that is actually a good segue for this episode because I am calling it somewhat of an appendix or a follow up uh to the chat I had with Colleen because she touched on something that has been very present for me of late for those of you that listen to the episode,

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you'll remember that she talked about the importance of being open to taking cues from our,

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our hearts, our souls,

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uh greater intelligence to get to and,

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and find our truest path or in layman's terms,

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trusting our gut instincts. But of late for me,

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it's actually been less about being aware and listening to those cues,

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which I always like to think that I do.

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And instead it has become more about standing tall and sticking to the path that at least in my case,

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I know I'm supposed to be on and doing so in the face of what I might call the conflicting voices that are trying to steer in a direction.

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I literally know at a gut instinct level is not the way to go and some might call that or those conflicting voices,

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a form of self sabotage since it might very well be our own voice.

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Being loud and conflicting,

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oftentimes we can be our own worst critics and can be incredibly hard on ourselves.

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I don't know about you, but I certainly do this way more than I should.

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And I work out on it a lot to stop the self sabotaging talk track.

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But some of those conflicting voices are also external and at times they,

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they show up or they sound like peer pressure or it feels more like a pressure to conform to some version of someone else's status or status quo versus defining our own.

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And it's funny because when I think about the term peer pressure,

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it always instantly makes me think of being say in primary school or maybe middle school or high school and friends are trying to get you to do something that you just don't want to do or you know,

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isn't for you, but they keep whatever you to do it because it's the quote unquote thing to do at the moment or they think it is something you should do because they think you should do it.

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And I've had this recently where advice while coming from a place of good intent is aiming to push me into something that at a gut instinct level.

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I'm just like, no,

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that isn't what I want to do.

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And I don't know that we talk about how to not bend to that pressure,

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whether as a kid or as an adult or what to do when we feel like we are under pressure to do something that just is not the vibe for us in the moment.

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And so it has forced me to double down on what I'm calling,

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the importance of listening to ourselves when we know something just fundamentally is not right for us in that moment because our moment is something else or something different.

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And as I've been talking about this, I'm leaning into a visual that over the last several years is the one I continue to call up when I'm trying to fend off that,

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which I know just isn't right for me, whether it is coming at me externally or I'm coming at myself about it.

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And that is actually of a bald eagle that is sitting alone atop a tree,

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an evergreen tree, generally on a,

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on a branch that kind of is off by itself or sticks out from the tree and it's fending off a handful of crows that are trying to get it to move out of the tree.

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Sometimes it's one really annoying crow,

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sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three and it doesn't move,

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it stays put, it's nearly perfectly still.

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It's poised, it's focused,

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it looks very strong. And there's something quite powerful in that imagery to me,

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particularly because I did not grow up in a place where we had bald eagles at the ready other than seeing eagles say,

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you know, in a nature documentary on nature channel or in an emblem or a logo or maybe in a movie,

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they didn't necessarily resonate with me,

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like personally from a symbolism perspective,

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they were of course beautiful birds. And it was not until I moved up to the Pacific Northwest where they are very prevalent.

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And it also wasn't until I hit a really rough patch of life Journey Road as I call it.

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And I'm talking about the four by four wheeling it over rough road,

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pothole bottoming out the car or high centering the car kind of rough patch of life journey road that they really started to become an important part of uh inspiration for me in times of doubt or challenge or questioning.

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And while I had seen them off and on during the first few years,

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I was living here, which was fascinating to me.

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It was not until I started seeing the same one like clockwork every morning on my way into what I do rank is a really difficult job experience that I started to take notice,

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serious notice of, of the just the the sheer plain imagery of it sitting there.

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But also, hey, does this mean something?

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Now if I didn't take any cues and I didn't read anything into that visual,

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the eagle was obviously serving in this location,

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Lake Washington for breakfast pretty much every morning and it was the perfect perch on this light pole to do that.

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But returning listeners will know,

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I am not that person. I look for signs.

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I see signs. I don't assume something is merely coincidence.

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And I do choose to connect the dots and take the cues.

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And after seeing this particular eagle repeatedly at the same time in the same place because I was on the same bus,

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right? I caught the same bus to commute into work at the same time every morning.

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I did start to think, hey, you know what, I might want to look this up.

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Uh because I don't think this is a coincidence anymore and it seems to be aligning to this really hard time I'm in right now.

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So as we do in the world we're in right now and back then,

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you know, you Google, what does it mean to see an eagle or what does it mean when an eagle flies over you or what is the symbolism of seeing an eagle?

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And I will say the results that came back were very plentiful.

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And I will also say that it probably depends on whether you even believe in that.

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And if you don't, no disrespect meant that's completely fine.

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But if you do it then also depends on sort of your own cultural or spiritual point of view and where you are on that particular,

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let's say, field of play in that point of view to determine what symbolic meaning resonates the most with you.

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And for me, it was this, the eagle's significance is particularly characteristic of new beginnings,

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resilience and stamina. For those who have been experiencing difficult passages in life,

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when an eagle appears, you are on notice to be courageous and stretch your limits.

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Do not accept the status quo, but rather retire and become more than you believe you are capable of.

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Look at things from a new higher perspective,

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be patient with the present, know that the future holds possibilities that you may not yet be able to see you are about to take flight.

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Now, I remember reading those are two quotes and I will uh in the show notes,

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I will link to where those come from.

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And I do remember reading it and going well.

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That's pretty much me at the moment and that was back in 2015.

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And now knowing what happened in the course of that year,

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this was spot on exact,

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even if in the moment back then it felt like absolute utter uncertainty and chaos.

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And I was beyond challenged in not only finding the path but also staying on that path.

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And since then, the eagles often appear in this context for me,

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especially when I'm at a moment in time where I do have to step into courage or strength to stay true and find the path to take flight.

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And I'm fortunate that I do actually regularly see this visual of an eagle alone atop a tree while these crows are just being so annoying and trying to get it to move enough that it sometimes I'll be out on a walk or something.

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And I'm, you start hearing the crows and you're,

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I instantly now look up and go, I wonder if there's an eagle in the tree.

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And oftentimes that's true. And oftentimes I'm like,

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hm, I think that's a sign for you,

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meaning me. But what is really resonating though at this moment?

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So as I record this right, this is the beginning of 2024 when I reread the symbolic definition and think about the visual as well.

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It is this ask to be patient with the present and with what is going on in the present and as timing would have it,

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I found some additional inspiration as I was listening to an interview the other day with Stefania Spampinato,

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who some might be familiar with from her portrayal of Doctor Catarina De Luca on Grey's Anatomy and Station 19.

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And I really identified with her story of persistence in achieving her success,

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which in my opinion, speaks to the challenge of trying to stay true to your authentic self,

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especially when you have something that you literally cannot change about yourself and of which is not being seen as an asset,

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but instead as a liability and or that people are not embracing what you're trying to do or represent and instead want to change or mold you into something that is the furthest from your actual true self.

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Now, sidebar if you don't know her full story and probably many of you don't,

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I can quickly summarize it. And if she ever listens to this,

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hopefully I do it correctly.

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Um There was an incredibly low moment in time for her,

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which for her was the present moment where she was going through all the motions of trying to find work as a lot of struggling actors do but was feeling completely hamstrung by something she had no ability to change or remove.

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And that was her accent since Italian is her first language and she was born in Catania,

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Sicily, but she stood tall,

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stood strong, remained true to herself.

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However, wobbly that felt in that moment,

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she took control of what she could control,

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put her best foot forward and sort of release the expectation of the outcome and what she was pursuing in that it will be what it will be and to be ok with what it will be.

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And quite beautifully. The next day,

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she went actually into the audition for Grey's Anatomy and got the part and I will link to the uh interviews where she talks about this.

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She literally describes this as Wednesday is the low day,

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Thursday is the audition and Friday is the job.

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And when I listened to this part of her story,

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I was like, yeah, yes,

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that is me right now. Not in the sense,

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I am an actor trying to get a job or that I am trying to do so or even get work in a completely foreign country where language is not my own,

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it's not my first language. But that in the present moment,

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I need to be patient and stay focused on the path I am on.

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And the plan I had put in place on that path,

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you know, there is that uh saying,

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you know, except the thing is we cannot change of the courage to change what we can,

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but have the wisdom also to know the difference.

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And there are things I literally cannot change about me.

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And that is fine and there are things that do need to change,

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but maybe they're not what everybody else thinks needs to change on someone else's time frame.

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And that is also fine. There is something to be said to trusting ourselves and our gut instinct and having patience with the present,

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especially when things may not be going exactly as we think they should or we wish they would or it's not easy and we might be tempted to second guess or be overly critical and perhaps succumb to something easier,

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but of which we know deep down isn't truly us or truly right for us.

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But it's important to stand tall on the branch atop the tree.

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Patient poised strong,

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ignoring the distractions and the conflicting voices that are trying to move us out and off our branch and take away our eagle eyed point of view.

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So that is our inspirational wisdom esque appendix,

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life note for this week. Hopefully you enjoyed it and some part of it resonated with you if it did let me know also a special shout out.

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Thank you to,

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I would just say the, the signs and the cues that are pointing me in the right direction these days.

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And in addition to finding new inspirations like through Stefania and Stefanie's interview,

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so I thank her for doing that and sharing her story because it can resonate,

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I think beyond just performance arts.

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And also uh to always the eagles that show up for me when I need to see them the most that does not go unnoticed.

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As always, I ask you to be kind to yourself to take it one hour at a time,

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one day at a time and I'll see you next time.

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Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Life Notes from chair 17.

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Remember to follow and subscribe. So you never miss an episode.

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We'll see you next time.