Do you believe in signs?

[GRADS]

This has been weighing heavy on me all day.

As some of you might know I lost a very good friend of mine along with 3 other people in a boating accident that happened on Folsom Lake back in May.

This morning I decided to take the paddle board out to Folsom to get a little exercise. Once at the lake I headed towards the peninsula because it makes for a good paddle. It's about 5 miles round trip and allows me to stop in the middle and stretch my legs. It also so happens that this is were my friends accident happened. This was my second time paddling in this area since the accident....actually, let me rephrase that, this was only my second time back since my friends were found. I spent 7 days out in this area immediately after the accident searching for them so I know the area quite well.

Well this morning as I approached the peninsula I saw something strange. I couldn't tell what it was but I could see that something was obviously on top of one of the rock formations. As I got closer I could tell that it was moving which made me even more intrigued. A little closer and I realized that it was what looked like a bald eagle. I thought it was strange because I've been going to Folsom Lake for 35 years and have been there probably over 1000 times (no exaggeration) and had never seen one before. I got as close as I could before it saw me and took off. I snapped a couple pictures of it on land but I was only able to get one of it in the air.

Once I looked at the picture it hit me like a ton of bricks. The eagle in the picture had a strong resemblance to the one on my friends boat and it just so happens that I was probably within 100 yards of where the accident happened.

Could it be purely coincidental? Absolutely. But in my 1000 plus trips out there I would think that I might have seen one other one before.

Do I believe in signs?....I'm not so sure but I would really like to think that my friend was trying to send me one.