Owl Tales

Growing up, I heard that owls are messengers of death. I even heard that owls can talk to you, telling you who will die. I never believed those stories until something happened to me.

When I lived in Oregon, I would drive down these gravel back roads that were wide enough for one vehicle only. One night as I was driving down the road I saw a owl sitting in the middle of the road. I drove up close to the owl thinking that my vehicle will scare the owl and make it fly away but the owl did not move. I backed up my vehicle and the owl turned to look towards me. I backed up a little further thinking that I could rev up the engine and drive towards it quickly and stop short to scare it. But, that did not work. The owl started walking back and forth on the road. There was no way I could just drive around the owl without hitting it. I sat for a few moments wondering how to get the owl out of the road. I watched the owl look around and then spread its wings and continue to walk back and forth on the road. I then decided since it was not going to move, I will take a picture of it. I grabbed my camera and got out of the truck and started to slowly walk towards the owl.

As I got closer I clearly heard a woman whispering "she sees us". I then heard a male voice say "no she doesn't". The woman said "yes, she does, she can see us."

I got back into my truck thinking I best offer some tobacco say a prayer and leave. I stepped out of the truck and stayed near the drivers side door and I heard the woman's voice say again "she can see us" but this time it sounded like the voice was coming from the passenger side of my truck. I could hear the two having a conversation but now I could not tell what they were saying. I considered telling them that I could not see them but decided that I did not want them to know that I could hear them talking. I looked at the owl sitting in the road and it started walking towards me. This scared me and I jumped back into my truck, backed up and got out of there.

When I think about that incident, I wonder what would have happened if I did acknowledge that I could hear them talking? I do not recall if anyone had died around that time but my family did experience a devastating trauma that we are still working on healing today. I think perhaps the owl was trying to warn me of something that was coming.

I think maybe the owls are not messengers of death but perhaps they are there to warn you of something that is going to happen and I should have listened then, to what they had to say.