It was in mid-May, 1991 and I was on a small Air Canada scheduled flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia and as we approached for a landing there was a dense fog. The plane drifted down, and then suddenly the engine roared and we soared into the air. Luckily I had a seasoned flyer sitting in a seat next to me and he advised me that this happened all the time, that we would just fly around and approach the landing again until we had a break in the fog. We circled again and tried to land but once more this landing was aborted but on the third attempt we landed safely and I was met at the airport by the Vice President of Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company. What an exciting start to a great adventure. I spent two days making safety presentations to employee audiences at a hotel and they had a great crew video taping everything I presented. The plan was to create a major Commitment To Safety video to show all their employees first, plus several short follow-up videos for corporate-wide monthly viewing. Our plan worked very successfully and their injury record showed immediate and continuing improvement.
I had planned to stay over an extra day just to visit Nova Scotia. My guide asked if I had any interest in Alexander Graham Bell. I did. He was, of course, the inventor of the telephone. I had a great interest in creativity and invention and he explained that Alexander Graham Bell had a home on a lake not too far and he would give me instructions and I could drive to the home and visit it. The home was not open for viewing but there was a caretaker there who would show me around. When I arrived there was no caretaker so I climbed a fence and viewed the home from the windows and walked around to the lake side of the home. It was a glorious view and there was a long porch all along the home. From this lake Alexander Graham Bell flew his own plane and the lake had pontoons. Being a pilot and inventor he had a number of patents applied to aircraft.
And then I discovered the old rocking chair. In my active imagination I could visualize Mr. Bell sitting in the chair rocking and so I sat down and rocked. I hadn’t been in the chair but a few moments but what happened next was not imagined. It was real. As I sat there a huge American eagle landed not more than five feet away from me. I sat still and the eagle visited for several precious moments and then flew off over the lake and out of sight. I am a nut for eagles. In Alaska I have seen up to a hundred eagles at one sight. I collect statues and images of eagles. I have one carved on a whale tooth, A large brass eagle with a three foot wingspan sits out on my back deck here in North Carolina. I had recklessly made a bid of $100 on it and that Amish auctioneer at Shipshewana, Indiana had pounded his gavel down and shouted “Sold!”
The memory of that time of solitude and gratitude and reflection, sitting there in Alexander Graham Bell’s rocking chair with that eagle in far away Nova Scotia is one of my most precious memories of my now 50 year career as a professional speaker.
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