🌄 Leadership Lessons Carved in Canyons

🌄 Fear, Courage & Angels in the Arches

Arches National Park. Even the name inspires feelings of magic and wonder.

Arches National Park, Utah

In Devil’s Garden, the trail begins gently. We lightly scramble up small ledges using our hands and feet to find purchase in the rock. We laugh, giggle nervously, we marvel at arches carved through time over millions of years. Our adventure feels challenging but safe - until it doesn’t.

A sign appears: Dangerous. We think, “How much worse could it be?”

We glance at it furtively, half curious, mostly bold and brave. We take another step forward and another. Soon, our playful hike turns to potentially perilous plunges into craggy ravines hundreds of feet below. Huge boulders, narrow ledges, a precipice yawning through space and time just below us. My breath shortens. My body refuses to move another inch. Just then, when I thought I couldn’t take another step, I found the will. The strength that pushed me forward as I inched by a precious inch closer towards the gap in the ravine, and with no safety measures in place for protection, a potentially painful death.

😇 Angels Appear

Just as I began to slip and slide towards the part of the ravine with the wide gap – Mike appears. A stranger, with a hand as steady as stone. His hand reaches towards me, anchoring me back to the safety of the rock. Step by step, with help, I make it through and back onto surer footing.

That day I learned:
➡️ Dangerous means dangerous. Signs are not suggestions.
➡️ Angels are everywhere. They may not have wings. Sometimes they arrive as strangers named Mike and Joan, who hold us steady even when we cannot.

Pradeep, Mike, Joan, and Anu Smiling at Devil’s Garden

🌟 Angels Have Landed

Later in our trip to Arches, I stood at Zion’s Angel’s Landing with resolve. Famous, feared, and even more daunting than Devil’s Garden, Angel’s Landing offers a series of chains bolted into the substrate to act as the only grip against thousand-foot drops and certain death.

This time, I carried a different awareness. I gave myself permission to stop. Permission to turn back if I needed to. I trusted my breath, my focused steps, and the mountain itself. 

When the ridge narrowed and my legs faltered, I felt my angel appear again. A hand at my back, gentle and steady, reminding me I wasn’t climbing alone.

🧗 What These Trails Taught Me

Anu in Arches

Fear is real. It shows up in our bodies to protect us. This recognition of potential danger must be honored just as our ancestors have done. Ignoring danger is not being courageous; it’s taking unnecessary risk, and it’s what has eliminated many from the gene pool. 

Courage instead acknowledges fear and even, in the knowing, takes a mindful step forward. Courage is knowing when to pause, knowing when to lean into your own strength, and when to reach out for another’s hand.

When you start to take that first courageous step into the unknown, support will appear. Sometimes in the form of strangers. Sometimes it’s a chain to hold onto. Sometimes it’s the solid earth beneath your feet. 

So, if you find yourself standing at the edge of your own cliff - whether it be facing a decision, a difficult conversation, or even creating a new beginning …remember:

• It’s ok to be afraid. Fear is a guiding system and a useful tool.

• Courage is listening to fear and then choosing to move forward mindfully anyway.

• When you are ready to step forward, your support will come.

Find strength by recognizing the important part fear plays in your life, and find a way to move forward courageously anyway. You are not alone.