I rose early to watch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. Mather Point was a brisk walk from our campsite in the cool dark. Perhaps because I settled in the amphitheater to watch, I became more and more aware of the sounds. A raven’s caw. Two small birds tweeting back and forth.

The stone steps around me began to fill. People tiptoed as if entering a performance or worship service already in progress. As the horizon brightened, I saw a spectrum of races and skin colors from all over the world, and I began to pick up foreign languages in their hushed conversations.

There is a story from the Parrusit tribe about the creation of canyons and tribes. Once, the Earth was smooth and flat, and all peoples spoke one ancient language. But the god Shinob shot his arrow into the ground, and it dug deep canyons and plowed up high mountains. Rain then fell in the crevices and formed mighty rivers. These topographical changes pushed the peoples apart. Now separated into tribes, each community created its own language and took pride in how they alone spoke. This was how quarrels and warfare began.

That particular morning along the rim of the Grand Canyon, many folks had gathered, presumably from far away, and just when the sun crested the ridge as a fiery ball in the sky, I believe one child spoke for all of us: “Whoa!”

Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.

 

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