ANIMAL MESSENGER IN MOAB, UT

About fourteen years ago, we drove through a tiny strip of a town chiseled out of red rocks in the middle of no where, and vowed we would return one day. Last week our family took that trip back to Moab, UT.

Two thousand natural sandstone arches make up Arches National Park, a few miles north of Moab. These extraordinary arches occur from the forces of nature and turn the sandstone red rock into a kaleidoscope of colors, textures and formations in a high desert canyon– that really make you feel you are on another planet.

Our guide Mary led us away from the crowds to the most remote part of this enormous park. She took us along a two-mile trail into the secluded Klondike bluffs to a massive graceful arch called Tower arch. Our tiny little five-foot tall rock climber guide announced that we were now going to scramble up to the top of it. I declared I would rest comfortably on a rock right where I was, and the family could go on. Mary insisted I continue. So we scooted and scrambled our way up to the top. Oh my. I had not ever done anything quite like this–a mixture of child-like excitement and flat out fear ran through me.

We reached the summit and perched ourselves firmly on the solid rock (some 500 feet above). We sat quietly watching and listening, letting this vast and extraordinary space sink in. Mary told us that we might be lucky enough to see a peregrine falcon. These raptors are the fastest-flying birds on this planet, with speeds recorded at 200 miles an hour. This bird manages this speed by tucking its feet and folding back its wings so it can dive-bomb, then strategically punches mid-air with it’s clenched foot to get its prey. Native Americans hold this warrior avatar as a spiritual symbol connecting the upper world with Earth.

As luck would have it, one of these falcons flew by, with the bonus of witnessing this mom delivering breakfast to it’s baby, in the nest she had created on the high cliff of Tower rock. When messengers appear, it is always up to us to discern the meaning. For me, I believe this soulful mother messenger showed up to encourage and remind me that we are far more capable of so much more than we know—AN ETHEREAL AVIATOR that gracefully maneuvers the aerobatics of life. The message felt more than appropriate, as my typical many irons in the fire can often make me feel frustrated or overwhelmed.