"Just One Thing......."

What if we each did just one thing.....

What if... we each took just one step towards understanding our individual role in supporting the natural world we adventure in... Decided upon one small effort to maintain and preserve the natural environment... For one time our energy is expended for something or someone else... Or even one moment given for support and encouragement of another seeker within the wild lands...

These represent a different kind of generosity; one that is more about practicing a simpler kind of charity... I've mused many times regarding how it's not just about each of us, on our own... Rather, it is more about all of us, and even more so, about our stewardship for these special wild places...

I've pondered how adventures are not just about a focus upon an objective... that it can also be about a gesture, a very different way to expend energy, a reflection of a certain kind of effort... And then it is only a matter of letting this simple kind of philanthropy ride the wave of its own momentum... The impacts can be immeasurable...

Just imagine if even half of the people who enjoy adventuring in our wild lands did just one thing... made even one such gesture...

Some of my own simple efforts this recent past have been to put some extra time into restoring a much used trail, some moments of support in assisting a few young adventurers, giving a few dollars to an animal charity that unknowingly gave me something very precious years ago, leading a group of novices to their first 10,000 foot summit, and of course... gathering, painting, and placing anonymously these small Summit Stones...

This is not really about doing 'yet one more thing'... often it is only making such efforts part of the adventure experiences we are there for anyway...

We hike and paddle long distances one hour at a time, and are very amazed when we look back and see the distance we have covered and the height we have attained... We journey for many days and are in wonder as we reflect on the experience and how much terrain and how many emotions we have travelled through... If I can give back one small thing, then anyone can, and if anyone can, just imagine what could happen with just one thing.....

DSD

"Wind Musings......."

"My friendship with the wind has been long lasting..." Grey Wolf

"After listening to it in all kinds of winds night and day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my position on the mountain by this pine-music alone." J. Muir

I love wind swept shores, wind sculpted trees, wind blown snow, and especially the many sounds of the winds themselves... I would like to muse that the wind has been a fellow of mine as well...

I remember... wind caressed summits where I had a tear in my eye after the multiple efforts to be there... and just closing my eyes for a few moments to feel the wind and the rock to ensure that the memory would be forever present... I remember winter storms when camping by a northern lake, during a long dog sled trip, and cross country skiing at night... I remember gentle summer breezes and movement of the trees just before arriving back at so many trailheads, almost as if the wind was helping me along that last bit... I remember listening to the wind and then finding myself humming along endlessly with the words of 'Yellow Submarine' on a solo long ago... I remember wind driven rain and trying to look under my rain hood to see where to land on a tiny island... and I have a sense of the many voices on the wind of friends long gone, guides no longer present, and mentors I wished I could have shared the day with... I recall seeing those prayer flags and watching their movement while wondering who put them up in those trees...

I love the symphony of sounds that the wind plays for us, that are never the very same, and seem to often reflect the emotions we might be having at that moment...

It is not just the movement of water that polishes these little stones... the wind plays its part as well... and I do try to capture something of this element in the painting of the Summit Stones...

We may not be able to 'see' the wind, but we cannot deny its presence... nor can I not listen when I find myself preoccupied and the wind returns to remind me again about why I am out there...

DSD

"Rivers......."

"Rivers... are greater than their grandest canyons and biggest drops... for nearly all there is something more, something ineffable yet deeply satisfying, as we join with the ancient currents and flow, for a brief time, between the timeless banks." Bangs & Kallen

Grey Wolf also said, "Rivers... not only give life... but have lives of their own."

I have been watching our river slowly freeze over these last few days... and have been musing about memories of rivers in my life... Rivers are such a varied medium for adventures. We hike beside and across them, kayak and canoe upon them, play at that special place where rivers meet the ocean, feel the ebb and flow as we drift through deep canyons, and enjoy the sound and power of rivers as they flow and fall over rock and cliff...

River are often found in the wisdom literature as a metaphor for journeys...

I am often reminded out in the wildlands how water in its many forms is one of the primary elements within our natural world. I find the sounds of river water flowing especially pleasing to my senses... And I can watch the movement for endless hours... When we travel along this medium we often lose ourselves within, or give ourselves over to the experience... And of course, I have admired many stones that have been river polished...

Recently I read a quote by Twain that was discovered and posted by B.R. Thomas on his Blog "BRT Insights - Whitewater Kayaking", where M. Twain said: "The face of the river , in time, became a wonderful book... which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day."

Rivers weave their own magic through the lands, our experiences, and our memories.....

DSD