Even If You Don’t

She tripped twice coming towards me on the trail. On her face was the question - should I keep going? When our eyes met, she looked at me like I might have the answer.

Instead: “I'm from the Midwest,” she said. “I'm used to cornfields.”

I answered what she was really asking. “You can do anything.”

“This is steep,” she replied, looking at the trail to come and then dubiously down at her feet.

“You can do anything,” I repeated as we passed, our jackets whispering to each other as our shoulders brushed. The singletrack trail held just enough width I could smell her lavender dryer sheets.

Rock Canyon, Provo, Utah

Fifty steps later, when she was far out of hearing distance, I realized my statement could have been stronger if I’d added, “I believe in you.” I said it out loud. Perhaps the trees would pass along the message.

‘I believe in you’ and ‘you can do it’ are overused, yes; trite, absolutely. They’re written in cursive on wooden signs in stores full of inspirational décor.

Dungeness, Washington

Except they were also true: I did believe in her and she could do anything. Just for the time it took a stranger to pass her on the trail, maybe she needed to relieve herself of the burden of wondering if she could do it.

Too bad that stranger couldn’t come up with better way to say it. The words were heartfelt if not also well worn.

Moab, Utah

For the next half mile I wished myself backwards into saying something more helpful. I listened to the gravel crunch under my feet and the wind rearrange the leaves, and then I heard a yip. A sound so much like a coyote I didn’t falter – this canyon was narrow enough to hold echoes manyfold. But then it came again, a slightly higher pitch and from a different direction.

The call-and-response became clear: a set of humans speaking to each other. Yelling from a trail on one side of the canyon to the other. Hello hello, they said in wordless sound.

Just like what I tried to say to her. Hello, hello, I had attempted. I see you. I hear you.

My soul sees the strength in yours.

Inspired by events in Rock Canyon, Provo, Utah.