I have always believed in the power of objects. I’m not a person who expresses my emotions openly, but many times throughout my life, I’ve lost or broken something and cried or felt wholly displaced for days on end because of what I pick up on energetically from the object energetically. I’ve cherished things for so much more than their physical form or worth. I’ve sensed people, moments and epiphanies in the wake of having an object enter my life; I’ve also sensed objects preparing to leave. Oftentimes now, I won’t even touch something unless I’m ready to make a connection.
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When we first saw the house in Saguache, we knew it was a work of art. Travis, a finishing carpenter, had a natural creative bent and his medium was mostly wood. He built a magical hideaway surrounded by stunning mountain views in the expansive San Luis Valley.
After finally meeting him and his wife, Sharon, it was clear their energy was tuned to a certain vibration that just felt good. They were both light-hearted and loved life, even in the face of terminal cancer. They were happy to show us around their compound of artistry, which they had planned to spend their final years enjoying. Every detail in the house begged to be discovered. There was so much to take in, it required multiple visits.
Travis was perpetually in a state of creation. He would go out on a hike with his son and bring home fallen branches they would use as artistic statements. He salvaged many materials and held on to them for years until the right application would reveal itself (a characteristic strangely similar to my husband). This included a giant sycamore tree he salvaged from a soon-to-be demolished taco shop in Austin. Travis moved it three times until it became the countertops and cabinets in the kitchen. It also showed up as a church bench he happened to rest on in an antique store, which he realized was the perfect length for an empty space in the house. He recognized the energy and potential of an object, especially wood.
We knew we would never come across anything like their house again. Though it was a financial stretch and not quite where we had envisioned a getaway, we also knew we would never have been able to imagine anything like it. It was a fortuitous find and so we became the stewards of the house that Travis built.
There are so many design features that catch your eye. My favorite might be the tiny pieces of turquoise filling holes in the wood floor. There are owls perched on the aspen tree used to support the staircase. When Sharon showed us around, she told us there were four total, though we could only find three.
After we bought the house and started welcoming friends into the space, the fourth owl became a mystery of sorts; no one could seem to find it. We would scan the great room and all the cuts of branches that Travis used as a design element towards the ceiling. Surely it was camouflaged but easy enough to spot. Yet for many visits, the owl remained hidden to us all.
One weekend, I went up to the house alone. I was on a phone call with my good friend, Amy, who is always game for a conversation about unseen magic. I wish I could remember what we were specifically talking about when I looked up and spotted the fourth owl. It struck me so much that I interrupted to tell her what happened. Since she hadn’t been to the house, I explained that we’ve been trying to find this owl and it surprised me how utterly obvious it was now. Channeling her always steady wisdom, Amy said, “It just revealed itself to you,” which felt exactly right. It was as if, having spent time connecting with the house on my own, the owl reflected my orientation to something greater.
When Andy was up there a few weeks later, we were talking on the phone about the fourth owl and he finally noticed it. A few months later, when we were back at the house, Amelia couldn’t stand that I wouldn’t tell her where the owl was. She scoured the room until she found it too. She could barely resist pointing it out to her sister and her Grandpère. I tried to convince her not to tell others because it’s more fun to let it reveal itself. We all marveled at how many people don’t notice it.
That same weekend, I realized I had never experienced the two owls Andy and Amelia had seen at the house many times. Amelia even took pictures of them one morning perched on the porch roof. Almost every time Andy pulls into the property at night, he sees at least one fly away. Every time I’ve been there, I’ve never even heard a hoot.
It got me thinking that Andy sees owls quite often. Walking around the property one afternoon, I remembered Amy telling me her husband, Bill, had a strong owl connection too. That made me wonder if somehow Bill inspired that energy when we were on the phone together. It was a fleeting thought I had and I was hoping to bring Amy to Saguache to visit the house and explain everything. I’d been thinking about her because she was back in Denver and doing a workshop that she offered to include me in. I thought the gift was too generous to accept and passed on the experience, though I couldn’t wait to hear about it the next day when I met up with her.
When we were heading back home, Andy suggested we stop at the Villa Grove Trade. As we approached the entrance, I noticed a dragon on a poster in the window by the front door. It seemed strange that it caught my attention, but I figured it was for Maddie since she likes dragons. I was going to take a picture of it, but relented because I thought teenage angst would just shrug it off.
The store had many local items for sale and a restaurant in the back. As we looked through all the cute products and artwork on display, Amelia found the fourth owl hanging on a rack of ornaments. We were both shocked. Since it is made from wood, we assumed Travis made it. Finding it in this little store felt even more magical in some strange way.
I should’ve bought an ornament right then and there, but my frugality got the best of me. So we left the shop with only sandwiches and a free cookie from the kind woman behind the counter. Twenty minutes up 285, as I was processing the whole experience, I realized it would have been a great gift for Amy. I was seeing her the next day and it all suddenly made so much sense to me. Since my father-in-law was with us, I didn’t ask Andy to turn around but for many days after I felt displaced, desperately wanting to crawl back to that moment and purchase an owl.
When I met up with Amy, I listened as she told me about the holotropic workshop and how she experienced a powerful dragon energy she connected with. The sign in the shop window flashed in my mind. Had I realized my intuition was calling, without fully understanding why, I would have followed my instinct and had a picture and the owl for her that day. I told her I needed to come full circle about something, but I needed some time to do it.
I didn’t make it back to the trading post until Thanksgiving. The dragon poster was gone. I assume it was for a local event that I can’t find in the Google machine. There were three remaining owl ornaments; the same ones that were there when we visited a month prior. This time I bought all three. I was unsure if they would be getting more or if these were the last items of an order placed years ago when Travis and Sharon got one for the house. I’ll stop by next time to see if they are replenished.
There is unseen energy constantly swirling around us, waiting for us to sense it and believe in its presence. I trust the feeling of being drawn to something, of being connected to others outside the confines of our materialistic world. I now try to notice when something reveals itself and I get excited anticipating when the connection will make sense.