You are not alone. - a photo on Flickriver

You are not alone.

            While staying in Vernal Utah and visiting the Dinosaur National Monument, my bride and I decided to visit the gift shop. While there I overheard a park ranger going over a map with a fellow tourist who desired to take a particular trail. I was immediately torn as I wanted information, but didn’t want a map!

Unlike most visitors to our National Parks, I will take a map at the entrance gate, but I pretty much refuse to use it. It’s just a souvenir to go in my travel file back home. I love to just get lost, to turn left when something inside of me says to turn left. I do the same when out on the backroads of Indiana. However, in this case, I sat my quirk aside and asked the ranger where I might be able to photograph rattlesnakes…she was unfolding a map before I was able to get out the last “s” in rattlesnakes.

She took out a pen and circled an elongated canyon on the map, looked me in the eyes and said “We have had reports of them up there, but if you go…You can’t pick up any Indian artifacts!” I thought I was going to pass out…rattlesnakes and arrowheads = heaven on earth! 

Legal Note: I have collected Indian artifacts since around age 8. It is truly a passion of mine; however, none in my collection were illegally obtained and I plan to keep it that way. After receiving licks (paddled with a wooden board…another story to come) in high school, 20 years in the Navy and 40 years of marriage, I can follow the rules!
She continued to say that the canyon was a tough hike over large boulders and to make sure to take water. Then she just looked into my eyes. At first, I thought it was a pause for me to ask questions, but then I realized that she was already regretting telling the old fat guy about the canyon and thinking about how they would probably have to medevac me out the next day! Without my knowing, my bride had walked away and was checking out collapsible walking sticks…apparently both ladies were concerned for my health!

Fast forward to the next morning. Its still midnight dark and I’m exceeding the speed limit on my way back to the park with my camera, water bottle and new walking stick. I arrived and parked as close to the canyon entrance as possible. It was daybreak and I had yet to see another human. The air was cool and crisp yet oddly, there wasn’t anything other than me making a sound. I started up the wooded, sandy path to my personal promised land. 

Once I reached the canyon, the path disappeared and I was faced with a beautiful box canyon maybe a half of a mile deep. I stepped up on my first bolder with all the energy of a twelve-year-old athlete. While climbing over bolder 234 and now some 40-50 feet from the ground, I couldn’t even spell energy and had long forgotten what it even was. I decided to find a comfortable looking rock and just sit for a while. 

I sat my camera down, took a drink of water and just sat back in the beauty of this place and of this time in it. There was no noise, no wind, just perfect silence…a perfect time to go to my God and worship. So, I did. 

After a couple of minutes or so of listing off my prayers of thanks silently in my head I opened my eyes, rotated my wrists so that my palms were pointed upwards and quietly whispered aloud “Thank You God.” A split second later, He answered me as the complete silence of the canyon was abruptly broken by the roar of 18 pigeons (assumed species based on the poorly focused photo provided) in unison sounding their alarm coo and clapping their wings some 75 feet or so directly above my head! My immediate reaction was to snatch up my camera and take a picture as they were the first animals I had seen or heard since the day prior. Once the photo was taken, I decided to begin breathing again after being startled and totally caught off guard by this event.

As I sat and reflected on what just happened, I became aware of what a gift it was. So much so it sent chills throughout my entire body. Remembering what a good friend and pastor had shared with me years before about what an answer or even a miracle may look like. God has no limits yet often uses His created nature to communicate with us. Science can theorize how it might be possible to part the Red Sea…but the miracle was that it happens exactly when Moses needed it to happen and it stopped to destroy the Egyptian army exactly when he needed it to. As the old adage goes: Timing is everything…and so it is with God.

Looking at the practical side…those pigeons probably roosted in the cliffs above me all night and may well have taken flight due to spotting a hawk off in the distance or to visit a source of water for breakfast. The amazing part is that they did not take flight as I was huffing, puffing and grunting over the boulders getting closer and closer to them. They did not take flight to the clacking of my new metal walking stick as I explored crevasses for rattlesnakes. No, they took flight a second after I whispered “Thank you God.” You may not agree, and know that I’m ok with your disagreement. It doesn’t sway me in the least in my knowledge of what happened.

I was doing something dangerous, something somewhat stupid. I say I enjoy being alone in nature, but the truth is that I never am as He is always with me. Keeping me from falling off boulders and from finding rattlesnakes no matter how hard or how long I look. 

Sometimes the best thing that we can say to someone else is simply “You are not alone!”

Taken on: September 8, 2024

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/7.1, 1/125 sec, 230mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM +1.4x
Aperture:	f/7.1
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	230mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 7.5 (Macintosh)
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