"Outward Bound..."

"Attitude is one of those words that gets thrown around like it means something. It does, but not what most people think. It's not about how you look, dress, move, talk, or anything else you can work out with your bedroom mirror. Attitude is if you see somebody struggling, do you help... It's walking a moonlit forest like you belong there. It's going up against real obstacles and getting knocked around. Once. Twice. A zillion times. Then getting up. That's it. Just getting up over and over until one day, you're up all the way. And it can be anything. Sailing. Sea kayaking. Canoeing. Rock climbing. Whatever...". Outward Bound

Oh, how I've mused over the years, about these very words... As a teenager I discovered Outward Bound but was not able to attend until later. I dreamt longingly of what I would experience there and was not disappointed. My first experience set the course for many adventures to follow. This was also not to be my only Outward Bound course either. I was mentored about attitude and adventure... I learned that what we often believe is only 'out there' we actually can create 'within' as well... And there was indeed 'more within me' than I had ever thought. My first solo was with them and these too have continued to be enduring, powerful experiences... Outward Bound is an experiential adventure metaphor in motion... and has been the first such exposure that many great adventurers found for themselves in their youth. Kurt Hahn and the Outward Bound Schools have such an attitude of service and have given so much to both individuals and their communities. I am proud of my OB memories and pins... and grateful for the instructors and their guidance... It was during these experiences that I first started thinking that if I can do these things, so many others can too, and if so many of us can then.......

DSD

"Grandfather......."

The concept of 'musing' was something passed on to me by many of my mentors...

If we are only open to the possibility of allowing ourselves to listen to the mentors, guides, and elders in our lives we may see that their hindsight and experiences can become our own foresight... I believe the original 'Mentor' was the name for the advisor of young Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey.

The soapstone sculpture above is symbolic of one mentor in my life... It was found on Salt Spring Island while hiking and kayaking out in the Gulf Islands. Unfortunately I cannot recall who the artist was. There have been many guides who shared with me... and took the lead on a classic mountain where I would not have otherwise reached the summit... who challenged me in swiftwater that I was doubtful about... upon Outward Bound courses where I relearned what was within me...

T. Des Pres said that such openly shared experience resonates with, "A deeper knowledge, an elder wisdom...". This kind of knowledge then becomes literally embedded in the cells of our bodies because of the importance we give it and the trust we find there...

And this is something worth honouring...

The mountain above is named "Grandfather", whom was an elder guide in my own life... I would like to think that such a mountain could have been referred to in his honour.....

Whom do you honour as an elder, guide, or mentor in your own life...?

DSD

Campfire Musings.....

There is a piece of music I have listened to countless times that has the sounds of flames crackling, old dry wood snapping, along with rain in the background... and a steady, yet subtly increasing tempo... I can hear it in my mind right now by just closing my eyes and listening again...

Musing and reading by the flames of a campfire or an old wood stove is an experience of joy... It is an environment that promotes the opening of one's mind and the presence of possibility... In the flames dance the muses themselves... We have only to listen to their music...

D. Brower asked, "Why is it that memories of campfires are so long-lasting...".

Grandfather, a Mountain Elder, said: "Our dreams are like a fire at a campsite. We can go off and do other things, but in coming back to the fire, we return to the center, to the warmth, to the energy."

Painting these small stones, with a fire glowing across the room from me, has become a special time...

I have tried to portray something of the fire and the movement of the flames in these tiny Summit Stones...

Then I sit quietly back and remember...gazing at the coals, seeing the flames dance, listening to the comfort of the hiss and the crackle...finding the remains of fire's in those islands, in the northern woods, at trail sites not used in years, while pondering who was there, and what their adventures had been like...

Have you ever seen a face in these flames? Have you ever discovered meaning in the coals?

Do you ever wonder why we feel such warmth around these fires in our hearts, and not just on our hands or feet?

Just some campfire musings...

DSD