We had the good fortune of connecting with Patricia Eagle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Patricia, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I think of balance as the distribution of energy among my creative, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual spaces. Over my lifetime, my focus of energy has changed. It used to be more on the mental (work) and physical (athletic interests), then the emotional needs increasingly became more important (dog companion, marriage and friendships), followed by spiritual and creative (contemplative and writer)––which the blend of those last two feels natural in my life. What helps me most with my balance is walking my prayers each morning. I meditated for years and after learning walking meditation I realized I was better at reflecting and calming while I walked. Now, granted, I walk in a beautiful place here in the 7500 feet of the San Luis Valley, surrounded by mountain peaks. I often see no one on my strolls. This is my time of day to offer close attention to the life around and within me, to listen to guidance, and to give thanks.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Reading and writing became past times for me from age ten on. I loved reading and it helped me escape from the sexual abuse in my childhood. I also kept a diary where I mostly wrote about the dog I had then and what we did together. It was my first dog love story. In high school I lost my confidence as a writer because I couldn’t think and respond clearly and fast enough to essay questions on exams. (I actually started cheating by asking my best friend, who often took the exams in classes before mine, what the questions were so I could formulate a response before being under pressure.) Then, in college when that friend went out of state and permanently lived elsewhere, we began writing letters––4-6 page letters! Remember, this was before cell phones when long distance calls were pricey. No email. No texting. We sat down and wrote about what we were experiencing in our lives.
Gradually, with letter writing and journaling, I gained confidence with my writing voice. By my thirties I completed a full manuscript about a month I spent in solitude in a small Colorado mountain cabin. In my forties, I focused on completing a thesis about reflective journaling, then started a blog in my fifties, and started my first book in my late fifties, finishing it in my early sixties, and completing a second book at seventy. I think it’s important to note that I ended up teaching English and creative writing in my forties and fifties, largely because I wanted to give my students the opportunities and encouragement I didn’t receive. That encouragement was mutual, too. I used to tell them, write like you talk. Don’t try to be fancy. Just get the words on paper in your own, unique voice. They wrote amazing pieces.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
That’s an easy question for me and not hypothetical! We go to that land at the base of Mt. Little Bear that Bill and I named Graceland. You can see 100 miles in three directions and the north view backs up to four 14,000 foot peaks. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world where the Milky Way blasts overhead at night while coyotes howl. Night hawks swoosh at sunset and an occasional Poor Will’s call haunts the night. Bill and I created a dog cemetery there, a precious place filled with unique headstones each with an epitaph about that beloved canine. In addition, friends helped us create a Prayer Circle (originally intended as a Medicine Wheel) where one can walk in meditation or prayer while feeling the support of the towering mountains or comforting view-scapes. Food tastes better at Graceland, too, and a hefty Bordeaux tops the evenings as we sit around a warm fire.

In February, thousands upon thousands of sandhill cranes come to the San Luis Valley. At the local refuge, we watch them doing their mating dances as the sun rises over the Sangre de Cristo peaks––hopping birds reflected in the wetlands of the refuge, their croaking sounds filling the crisp morning air as swirls of more birds come in for landing.

To warm up in the evening, I like to take my guests to Hooper Hot Springs, where we soak as we watch the setting sun paint the mountain range shades of pink as the San Luis Valley’s salt of the earth people enjoy more of what this mystical, magical place offers––Indigenous peoples, people who have migrated here to farm and work the land, a collection of people of different gender persuasions, political interests, and levels of activism who often share the same commitments to make things better and be caring of one another.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Boy do you have that right. I’m better at life by having others along with me, dogs and humans. Obviously since my next creative endeavor, my new book Dog Love Stories––The Canines Who Changed Me, is all about my dog companions, I’ll start off with the ten dogs I’ve had. Each dog contributed toward making me a better human as we learned to trust and listen to one another. And just like with my humans, my dogs have helped me be more responsible in how I love another (taking time to really be together and communicate clearly).

My human, my spouse, was with me for the journeys of both of my books. In the evenings I’d read to him what I had written during the day, and he would give me feedback and encouragement. For this book, we talked about each dog’s story and laughed and cried about that dog. Dog Love Stories was born as a result of a dog cemetery Bill and I built together on some land we own on the side of Mount Little Bear. Bill was along for the conception and final manuscript of this book before being diagnosed with cancer and dying seven months later, before this book’s publication. When my first print books arrived this past January, the first one I took out of the box I signed to him expressing my gratitude and deep love, then I left it on his grave.

Website: https://patriciaeagle.com

Instagram: @patricia.e.eagle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patriciaeagleauthor

Image Credits
Matt Struck

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