Being brought back to reality

I went on a run up Rocky Canyon (the Robie Creek half marathon route) on Sunday really late in the afternoon. By the time I hit 4 1/2 miles up the canyon and turned around, dusk was settling in. My speed kept increasing as the light was diminishing. It was that point of the evening when everything looks like it's in black and white, when all you can see is shadows and light silhouettes.

Suddenly above the music coming through my headphones I heard one of the greatest and creepiest sounds ever:  "who...who, who."

I stopped. I heard it again. I looked up. There it was, sitting up there on the top of a cliff, silhouetted perfectly against the deepening blue sky. I could even see its "horns"!

A Great Horned Owl! Everything in my head stopped and I was suddenly, utterly, in the present moment.

The I felt nervous and apprehensive and started having flashbacks to The Secret of NIMH  and Mrs. Frisby's terrifying visit to the Great Owl.

Sufficiently awed, fully present and involuntarily smiling with gratitude, I ran on.