The Barn Owl

The sun had already set as the moon started to take control of the sky, As she lay there in her bed reading a book as she always does before bed, she hears a strange sound. A sound she has never heard before in her 10 years of living in the desert. It sounds like ‘ whooo, wwww’ almost sounds like a human voice getting caught in the wind. She puts her book down to listen more intently hoping the sound reappears. A few minutes go by and again she hears “whoo-whoo ww” . “It is an owl!” she says aloud as she thrusts her book down against the bed. So excited by the sound she accidentally closes her book without a bookmark, losing her place in the book. 10 years ago, Sarah moved out to the desert. I am talking way west. Where it’s just you and hundreds of miles of nothing. Cactuses and a few buzzards hunting for lizards, woodpeckers pecking cactuses for a drop of water. Sarah moved to the desert to get away from society. She needed a place to clear her mind and reset her soul. She decided to pick a place that would keep her 100 miles away from a human. She also loved chasing the weather and watching the weather so what better place to watch Lightening strike the ground over and over again. The even better part is that she did not have to share this magical view with anyone. It was as if the Gods had created this magical ongoing art exhibit just for her. She felt in tune with the universe and herself in the desert. As time went on, she grew to love the solitude and beauty so she decided to cut all ties with everyone she knew and stay out there in the middle of nowhere. Just the big sky and vast sand slash red dirt wonderland. She was set in her routines, even though she was freer than she had ever been before, she was still human and human nature always wins. She woke up at the same time every day, watched the sunrise, and ate breakfast looking out into the desert. Yoga, coffee, art, lunch, walk, meditate, eat, lay in bed, and read a book as the sun goes down. Nothing too out of the ordinary and certainly predictable. Sarah even knew what the buzzards and woodpeckers sounded like, what the crickets sounded like, and exactly what time they would chime in with their lovely “suns going down” melody. So to hear an owl after 10 years of never having heard an owl. She was surprised, to say the least and most excited to have something new introduced to her routine. She immediately went to her very extensive library to see if she had any books on owls. “Ah-ha!” She exclaims. She of course had 2 books on owls. After skimming both of them she was able to identify what kind of owl it was based on the “who’s” it made. A Barn Owl. “but how would a barn owl get all the way out here?” she thought to herself as she pushed her pointer finger into the bottom of her lip with her other hand on her hip. Deep in thought, she started thinking up all these possibilities. Sarah was always a very analytical person so she would often think through all possible scenarios when trying to find an answer for herself. “Maybe it was someone’s pet and it got out? Maybe I have a neighbor nearby that has a bird rescue or something where he keeps different kinds of birds.. Or maybe it was someone’s pet being transported by plane and it got dropped out of the plain, no that wouldn’t make sense bc the cage would be holding the bird in and would kill the bird on impact.. Hmmm. She thought to herself. I am getting pretty tired with all this new excitement. I should just go to bed and go out looking for it tomorrow. The next day comes and Sarah changes up her usual routine, eats breakfast, and then gets dressed to go exploring hoping to find the owl sleeping on a tall cactus somewhere. If I could just find him, I would get some answers she said aloud into an empty desert while throwing her hands up in the air and then letting them flop to her sides as she slumped her shoulders down and traveled onward. After a few hours of searching the desert, she still hasn’t seen an owl anywhere. Sarah starts to get hungry so she stops to take a break. She unpacks her bag and lays a blanket down on the ground so that she may meditate and then eat the small snack that she packed for herself. Sarah sits down with her legs crossed over, spine up straight and head pointed down with her eyes closed and hands resting on her knees. The typical meditation pose. Meditation was usually Sarah’s favorite part of the day. But not today. She could not focus so she quickly gave up and pulled out her snack, some water, and mixed nuts and seeds. She laid them out onto her blanket on top of the plastic bag she brought them in. She took a big drink of water out of her water bottle and then started picking at her seeds and nuts like a bird would do. Eating them one by one she hears a loud flapping noise and as she looks down at her nuts to grab the next bite she sees a very large shadow consume her entire blanket. Frightened by the alarming shadow she quickly tries to look up to see what or whom the large shadow belongs to. However, it all happens so fast that she cannot raise her head in time. Within a split second, there is a large owl sitting on her shoulder. With his large talons gripping her shoulder very tightly. Sarah feels fear and excitement at the same time. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh she says aloud in a very low voice to keep from scaring off the owl. She sits perfectly still trying to think of what she should do. The owl is very heavy so she knows she can’t sit perfectly still for much longer so she must think of something she can do that won’t scare off the beautiful mysterious bird. About that time, the owl hops off of her shoulder and onto Sarah’s blanket. He starts helping himself to Sarah’s trail mix. She smiles and says to the bird with a sigh of relief, “ you are hungry aren’t you? How did you get all the way out here? Don’t worry, help yourself. I’ve got plenty more trail mix at home. Here do you want some water?” Sarah then pours some water out of her water bottle into her hand and keeps her hand cupped like a bowl filled with water. The bird shows no interest in her hand full of water. He continues to pick at the trail mix. She pours out the water and continues to talk to the owl. “ I wonder if you have an owner somewhere worried sick about you? Or are you like me? Just a lost soul looking for some solitude somewhere new?”

At that moment, Sarah notices the owl has something on his ankle. A banding. “ ah maybe this can give us some answers.” She slowly reaches over to the bird’s foot while saying “ don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to see where you are from.” She unhooks the banding and flattens it out so that she can read what is written on it. The owl didn’t seem to mind at all. “ you must be domesticated hu buddy?” Says Sarah. The tag reads Arizona federal bird reserve with an ID number and nothing else. She realizes she has a duty to get this bird back to its reserve. So she starts thinking of a way to get the bird back to her house without scaring it half to death. She throws some trail mix onto the desert sand and watches the owl hop over to the seeds. She then slowly bundles up the blanket into her hand, folding it into a smaller rectangle. “ she says ok Mr.Owl I am your friend but you might not like what I am about to do.” She quickly throws the blanket over the bird and grabs him up into her arms while swaddling him with the blanket just like you would do to a newborn baby. She grabs her backpack and throws it over her right shoulder while holding the seemingly calm owl in her left arm. “let’s get you home, shall we?” she says to the bird. After a very peaceful trip back to her home she lets the owl roam freely in her kitchen as she sits at the dining table googling how to reach this bird sanctuary. She finds a phone number and calls. A super bubbly teen girl answers the phone. “ Arizona Federal Bird Reserve. How can I help you?” Sarah, “ Yes I think I have one of your birds… It’s a barn owl I think and it had a tag around its foot with your info on it.” “oh that is wonderful, Thank you for calling. Let me look up the ID #. Do you see the ID # on the tag?” Says the girl. Sarah” Yes it is 00352428396.” The girl says, “ Ok just one moment while I look that up, Is it ok if I put you on hold?” “sure,” Sarah says. After being on hold for 20 minutes Sarah says to the owl perched on top of a kitchen cabinet door. “ you must be a special bird for it to take this long.” As she says this to the owl someone gets back on the phone. It’s the bubbly teen girl again but this time her voice is not so bubbly…. “uh ma’am… uh… Uh are you sure that is the ID #?” Sarah says “yes I can read it again

If you need?” The girl with a shaky voice says “no that’s ok it's just that it seems impossible for you to have that particular bird. He belonged to my great grandfather who started this Bird Reserve. The bird went with him everywhere. It was my great grandfather's best friend or so I am told by the other staff members. When my great grandfather passed away 80 years ago the Owl flew away. Never to been seen again…. So if that is the same owl it's over 100 years old… Owl's life spans are pretty short and the longest recorded life span is 35 years. So I think there is a reason that owl found you. This is a very special owl and I think you must be a very special person if he found you. This is your owl now ma’am. You need him and he needs you.” Sarah says “ what like a spirit animal???” in a kinda confused voice. “ Yes, exactly like a spirit animal..” the young teen says in a very serious voice. The teen girl says “It’s a miracle and you should feel blessed that this owl found you. I think it’s a sign from my great grandfather.” Sarah says “ ok so a miracle bird sent to me from your dead great grandfather….I guess it will take some time to wrap my head around this but thank you for your time.” Sarah hangs up the phone. Stunned. She looks to the owl and says “Well I guess it’s just you and me buddy!” The owl looks directly at her as if looking into her eyes. Flaps his wings and nods his head as if to say “ yes, it sure is.”