Falling

I mentioned in a previous post that I had nearly fallen off a cliff when I was young, and that reminded me of a neighbor's suggestion once to write it down and share it.  I don't think my family even knows about this since they were on the trip with me, but they were a few footsteps ahead of me and didn't see it, with the exception of one, but I debate on whether I want her to know about it, because she didn't know I was in trouble, and she may feel guilty for that, but then again, it was long ago, so maybe it isn't a concern anymore.

I've been doing some research on where the trail was when this happened, and I've come to the conclusion that it was likely the Canyon Overlook trail in Zion National Park.  According to the pictures of the fencing I see on more recent pictures, there is some improvement on them since my memory, so no one needs to be concerned that this will happen to a child now.

I recall while beginning the hike noticing that some of the rock on the edge of the trail looked slick and at the moment took a mental note to watch for it, but a child gets distracted with other thoughts, and soon that mental note was forgotten.  Nothing extraordinary or unusual happened on that trail going up.  We rested a few times to take a few pictures, and headed back.  We were nearly to the end of the trail, when suddenly my feet slipped from beneath me, and I found myself dangling over the edge of the trail and underneath the fence wiring with a firm grasp on the top bar of the fence.

It seemed like no big deal at first.  All I had to do was get back up on me feet and push myself up, but I soon discovered that the rock underneath my feet was so slick that I kept slipping out over the edge.  I tried other spots, but couldn't get my shoes to grip anything.  The slipping was making my arms hurt.  I looked back to see my sister passing by, and I watched her, hoping she'd notice I was in trouble, but she walked on.  I already hear people reading this question why I didn't shout at her, but you must understand that for quiet people like me, that's not so easy to do.  As an introvert, my feelings internalize, so all that fear was building pressure inside of me, and it was shutting down my ability to speak.

I was left to myself to deal with my problem.  I looked down and saw the winding road beneath me.  In a child's perspective, it looked like strings of spaghetti: it was so far down.  My arms and hands were shaking and turning painful.  I didn't know how much longer I could hold on.  I was sure I'd thought of everything, and I was getting really scared.  There was only one thing left that I could do, and that was to pray.  Not being able to speak, it was all internal, but in the same desperation and plea as if it was spoken.  In my frantic moment there came into my mind quite calmly and collectively the instruction to look to the side for a rougher rock.  I looked to my left and clearly next to me there was a rock with the exact roughness that I needed.  I mustered up enough strength to get my leg out from under the fence and put my foot on the rock, and I popped up as if I was just standing up from the ground.  I was able to run to the end of the trail to meet up with my family, who were just reaching the van.

It was probably only a few minutes long, but while you're experiencing it, it seems to slow down time and last forever.   Do I believe prayers are answered?  You bet.  As far as I'm concerned, one of those answers saved my life.

This is what I saw while dangling under the fence.  Must have been taken in a similar area.