Another Voice On Wolves.....

Bev Doolittle wrote: "To be like a wolf was not a role undertaken lightly by any Crow warrior. The special qualities of wolves - endurance, loyalty, tracking ability - made the warriors who took their power from the wolf esteemed members of the tribe. Being like a wolf meant studying the ways and habits of wolves, focusing one's energies on living the way of the wolf."
Amazing art; powerful metaphors... What an adventure in perspectives Doolittle offers us as a gift..... DSD

"Our Adventure Nature....."

It is in our very nature to be adventurous... Anonymous wrote: "People whose seek adventure are true poets of living..." and another Anon said, "Adventuring is a means to express one's inner self...".
A friend recently made an observation that these musings on adventures didn't have much content in them about what might be considered the 'technical' side of adventure activities. True... And I guess that is my intent. There are a great many sources for such information from the extensive websites and many guidebooks that provide details on those aspects of adventure; and I am no expert in these either.
There would seem to be many levels to adventure though...
There is as much to muse about as to the 'Why' of our wild play as there is to the 'How'...
'Why' we ever tried these things in the first place, why we might have kept going, and what we reflect on about the journey after many years are musings of equal worth.
Have you read between the lines of those many outdoor adventure narratives? There are too many to tally; although I keep trying to read them all. Those who write about their exceptional adventure experiences give us a sense of what is harder to put into words...what may lay hidden out in the wild world...things like freedom, joy, challenges, fellowship, even accepted adversities. Such intense experiences help us mold our motives, assist in sharpening our enthusiasm, show us how to meet our needs.. and that is all part of what keeps us wanting to go back... I have experienced this myself regardless of the activity being it climbing, hiking, kayaking, caving, canyoneering, whatever.....
As in the exceptional artistic works of the Jim Warren pictures above, we can see how the nature of adventure is reflected within Nature herself... The essence of the natural worlds out there in the rain forests, deserts, on the tundra, or the bare rock hold within them all the elements of both Mother Nature and our Adventure Nature... Warren's art seems to speak to the many levels and meanings of both these essence's.
And as Hobson wrote about the value of this awareness, "The adventure attitude, particularly as used in the metaphors of the mountain or the sea...can be applied to our daily lives."
We are meant to explore, to seek out the unknown, to find ourselves by journeying beyond the self...and adventure is a subtle but powerful means to these ends. We all have our own mountains to climb; our own summits to achieve. How will you arrange the elements in your life? What will your next 'Adventure Summit' be? DSD

"Allow Mystery..."

"Allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, 'There could be more, there could be things we don't understand'..." B. Lopez
I once was able to watch a grey wolf at play when out on an adventure. This animal was a mystery in motion to me. At that time I knew so little about them, and yet found myself so very impressed by its grace of movement and its playful behavior. When it finally looked over in my direction and met my gaze, there was a moment there, where I wondered who was really watching who... DSD
"The Bella Coola Indians believed that someone tried to change all the animals into men but succeeded in making human only the eyes of the wolf." B. Lopez
"If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? Answering that question creates a powerful personal metaphor." Grey Wolf
Adventures are inherently full of mystery....Isn't that one of the many things that may draw us to what is adventuresome...? I think I would like to be a wolf even for a day.....DSD

Summit Stones by DSD

This Blog and the 'Summit-Stones' Blog, both have comment opportunities for you. I have recently enabled 'Comment Moderation' as there were some unrelated comments made that needed to be referred elsewhere. Your specific comments about your own adventures, adventure quotes , or being a 'Finder' of a Summit Stone are most welcome here. I will post them for you as soon as I can. DSD

The Journey...

The Journey.....

So many adventure voyages to remember...so many more to head out on...
G. Leonard wrote: "If the traveler is fortunate - that is if the path is complex and profound enough - the destination is two miles further away for every mile he or she travels."
When musing about the meanings within this quote, I've often felt real gratitude for the many journeys afforded me. Those adventures that await us out there are priceless; we only have to look up and set out...
I remember...the summits of snow-capped mountains and the forests cradling them; the calm on the beaches of islands and the tracks found there in the sand; the trails of Colorado and the people that shared them; the lighting on the red rocks of the desert and the emotions that emerged; the fetch of the waves across a wind swept ocean channel; the high mountain passes along the continental divide...
So many memories; journeys within journeys...
"Collect experiences, not things, for that is what will truly nourish you." Grey Wolf
Words that sound simple, but can hold profound meaning.
The value of such meaning I cannot estimate as there have been so many other times that I almost gave these adventures up, just about quite, doubted if to return...
Therein resides the reasons for musing; about the nature of the adventures we all live and the character of the wanderers we all are. If we choose to do this sometimes what seems like endings are really new beginnings; and the journeys then continue.
Adventures are talked about as hardy things but they have a fragile side to them...
"If you try too hard, adventures themselves become like Zen Koans - puzzles which slip away the more you try to solve them. Like water that slips through your fingers the harder you attempt to grasp it." Anon
They are still worth the careful efforts! If we consider that we never really know if this will be our last trail, our final trip, doing something we most times feel very passionate about. Often it does turn out to be our last journey to a place, only we didn't know it at the time.
"And then there are the places that we have visited, the places we swore we would return to: bays of untouched beaches, abandoned villages with their ceremonial poles, the jagged cut of untouched rocky coastlines. All told, a true paddler's paradise, inviting us back and compelling us onward." G. Rasmussen
Adventure journeys are indeed long and winding roads that we often can not see the end of. That would seem to be yet another hidden gift though. When we are not so focused on the last of the traveling, we then get to enjoy more of what we discover along the way. Easier said than done when the pack weighs forty pounds and the cold rain lasts for a week, but nonetheless holds grains of truth. H. Miller said: "Our destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things", and Anon wrote: "In our travels we don't describe the world we see, rather, we see the world we describe." Sometimes it seems to be more about perception than places, but the contrasts of those places can also have their effects on growing new perceptions.
Many times it is about the people who share these adventure journeys with us; maybe even like sharing the journey of writing this blog with you as you then read it. A blog seems to be much like using a journal, I can follow my ramblings wherever they might lead and try to understand it all as I pass through that new country.
In the end, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of adventure we choose, only that we journey in a genuine way. There are so many kinds of 'summits' and so many 'adventure ways'. When we push our own limits at a level, and in an activity, that is right for each of us, with a focus on safety and especially fun; we journey along paths of freedom, happiness, beauty, and truth.
I hope you have and share many years of wandering; and may the spirit you create for yourself and others along the way of your adventure journeys be forever present...
DSD

Another Fun Musing Out there...

"The wilderness holds answers to more questions than we yet know how to ask." N. Newhall

Here is another Summit Stone picture post saved from out there. It was mused about a ways back on some message board. Unfortunately it now seems to be deleted and was probably considered to be some kind of spam. (Please see my 'comment & caveat' of an earlier post) I recall that this Stone may have been discovered in Arches National Park, and would have been placed while out hiking and canyoneering, or could be one that was likely placed on or near Mt Edith in Banff National Park during a climb of the south peak.

After collecting, washing, polishing, 'musing about', painting, and finally placing - it is a wonder to me how I can often recall where Stones were collected and then later hidden. All part of the fun...

My impression of the 'Finders' when they post about their discovery is that they really enjoy sharing about their experience, what it might have meant to them, and have lots of fun describing their own adventure they were out on that day. It seems very unfortunate then, when their wishes are not respected in sharing, if their posts are later deleted. If this might be your Stone, or if you had some other post taken away, put whatever comment you want here about the adventure you had that day...

DSD

Favorite Places...Favorite Stones...

I've always believed in Geomancy: the mysteriousness of the Elements...and I've certainly felt the reality of Geopiety: special favorite places in the world where we each seem to belong...

How about you? Hasn't it felt just 'right' when you've touched that granite rock, turned a corner on that trail and saw.....or landed with a muted crunch on that sandy and rocky beach.....

What about one of those nights when you got up for a moment and gazed up at stars to numerous to count...or discovered again that mountain lake that you've seen so many times before and yet find yourself now really beginning to sense what is there...

Then there are the sounds.....falling asleep to the wind in the trees...the distant thunder that both intrigues and yet scares us...the many cords of the rain, how it starts, grows in cadence, then fades away...and the ocean - which has too many sounds too note, and yet whose music we never seem to tire of...How can there not be a Geomancy; how can we not find some Geopiety?

The picture above is of a special place I used to gaze at from a distance. It now holds many mysteries that were out there for me to discover; about the islands and about myself...It feels right to be there...

I remember... fog in the morning, cold breezes across the water, wind through the trees, the smile of my partner paddling beside me, landing on small beaches of shells and sand, finding a face carved into a long dead tree, waves that challenged my skill level...and so much else. How can there not be a Geomancy; a Geopiety... A place like that gives us so much...

So it also feels right to then give something back; picking up some garbage, helping on an island trail restoration, and quietly placing a few favorite stones season after season...

Maybe others who found these; created some of their own Geomancy.....Maybe they will also give something back to that place...

DSD