June 10, 2008
Listening quietly from the bottom of Walter's Wiggles, and slapping at mosquitoes, a 'young' lady descends from above. I turn on my head lamp so as not to surprise her. Seeing me there and wondering what I am doing, she takes a seat next to me. She immediately appears lonely...and she is. Forty-five years old, a birthday tomorrow, she has traveled to Zion alone to celebrate by herself. She acts and looks much younger, even my age, but she tells me all about her life, and I listen, as I am naturally good at and inclined to do. She is unmarried. After making plenty of money as an engineer, she is basically retired and at a loss of what to do in life. She had expected to be married and have kides. She says her life was guided along not only by her goals, but also her fears. The fear of being unmarried at 45 drove her to be unmarried at 45. All her perspectives are interesting. She is fascinated with the spiritual realm and tells me that Zion is a spiritual vortex. I would hesitate to believe such talk if it wasn't for my own experiences here. Deja vu, real deja vu, has occurred here in Zion with me more than it has at anytime in my life. Typically as I'm walking a trail, I flash a memory of the past. I have been here and done this exact thing before it seems. And then in a flash it is gone. It is a feeling, but more than that, it is very real. I had never been here before or doing this before, but I have a flash recollection of being there and doing that. It's like sometime in the past I viewed what I was doing in the future, and when the future became present, I view what has happened in the past. This defies my ability to comprehend, and indeed I think no human can, for such things are beyond the realm of human understanding. I do believe we are dealing with another dimension, one that is outside the confines of time. Just as God is.
The woman tells me that when lots of deja vu occurs, you are where you are supposed to be in life. "Oh good" I think, "i'm supposed to be in Zion doing owl research!" But aren't we where we are supposed to be anywhere we are? By the will of God, we are all where we ought to be...?
She tells me that native americans hold owls as sacred, for owls can see into dark places. She also speaks of witnessing large congregations of owls near her house in Farmington, Utah. She says that I emanate light; the light referring to some kind of spiritual glow of goodness, she says. What kind of woman is this, I think to myself. Is she real? Is she an owl herself in human form? I would have only passed her off as an aberration...maybe I'm getting delusional out here? But Steph saw and talked to her too. It's hard for me to believe people like this, but it all seems so interconnected in my mind. Me researching owls, hooting for owls, her spiritual insight into owls, her strange owl experiences, her seeing into the dark places of my soul? If indeed she does see a light in me, I know where that light comes from, and its not from me, for there is no light within me without God.
And then we hear the owl calling from the canyon below.
We drove her to her campsite, and she disappeared into the night. Steph and I ponder the woman over a meal of pasta and hot cocoa. Steph thinks she's crazy...I still wonder...
Listening quietly from the bottom of Walter's Wiggles, and slapping at mosquitoes, a 'young' lady descends from above. I turn on my head lamp so as not to surprise her. Seeing me there and wondering what I am doing, she takes a seat next to me. She immediately appears lonely...and she is. Forty-five years old, a birthday tomorrow, she has traveled to Zion alone to celebrate by herself. She acts and looks much younger, even my age, but she tells me all about her life, and I listen, as I am naturally good at and inclined to do. She is unmarried. After making plenty of money as an engineer, she is basically retired and at a loss of what to do in life. She had expected to be married and have kides. She says her life was guided along not only by her goals, but also her fears. The fear of being unmarried at 45 drove her to be unmarried at 45. All her perspectives are interesting. She is fascinated with the spiritual realm and tells me that Zion is a spiritual vortex. I would hesitate to believe such talk if it wasn't for my own experiences here. Deja vu, real deja vu, has occurred here in Zion with me more than it has at anytime in my life. Typically as I'm walking a trail, I flash a memory of the past. I have been here and done this exact thing before it seems. And then in a flash it is gone. It is a feeling, but more than that, it is very real. I had never been here before or doing this before, but I have a flash recollection of being there and doing that. It's like sometime in the past I viewed what I was doing in the future, and when the future became present, I view what has happened in the past. This defies my ability to comprehend, and indeed I think no human can, for such things are beyond the realm of human understanding. I do believe we are dealing with another dimension, one that is outside the confines of time. Just as God is.
The woman tells me that when lots of deja vu occurs, you are where you are supposed to be in life. "Oh good" I think, "i'm supposed to be in Zion doing owl research!" But aren't we where we are supposed to be anywhere we are? By the will of God, we are all where we ought to be...?
She tells me that native americans hold owls as sacred, for owls can see into dark places. She also speaks of witnessing large congregations of owls near her house in Farmington, Utah. She says that I emanate light; the light referring to some kind of spiritual glow of goodness, she says. What kind of woman is this, I think to myself. Is she real? Is she an owl herself in human form? I would have only passed her off as an aberration...maybe I'm getting delusional out here? But Steph saw and talked to her too. It's hard for me to believe people like this, but it all seems so interconnected in my mind. Me researching owls, hooting for owls, her spiritual insight into owls, her strange owl experiences, her seeing into the dark places of my soul? If indeed she does see a light in me, I know where that light comes from, and its not from me, for there is no light within me without God.
And then we hear the owl calling from the canyon below.
We drove her to her campsite, and she disappeared into the night. Steph and I ponder the woman over a meal of pasta and hot cocoa. Steph thinks she's crazy...I still wonder...
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