"A Trans-Arctic Canoe Expedition Adventure..."

One of my favorite organizations that really 'gives back' and sincerely 'passes forward', is the World Wildlife Fund... I posted earlier this year about their May 6th, forty years birthday celebration & the young adventurers of the Trans-Artic Canoe Expedition...

These keen adventurers included: Chris Sledzik, Chase Edgerton, Sam Harrison, Robert Woodhull, Jeremy Harrison, and Alex Harrison...

They all have a passion for adventure and dreamed of an extended wilderness canoe experience across the Canadian tundra... The tundra is a very magical place of solitude, mystery, and where the elements become very much part of our lives...

Their goals involved raising awareness about preserving wild lands, the importance of future conservation efforts, in "leaving a place in better condition than the way it was found", and to raise funds for the WWF as well...

Their journey took them from its beginnings on Great Slave Lake, through the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary, and was completed at Chantrey Inlet much farther north... Over 1200 kilometers of challenge and adventure...

I followed along with their trip updates from June to early August of this year with real excitement...

As in Moore's image above of a 'Canoe Pointing The Way'... here we have boundless enthusiasm, and real energy & efforts to give back and pass forward in support of the WWF... and especially in the potency of their message...

I hope they enjoy their Summit Stones.....

DSD

"Where Will You End Up Little Stone....."

Often... When painting these small rocks... While listening to the birds or the wind in nearby trees, and sometimes to specifically selected music... I will choose my next stone... Admire it closely, and turn it over as I decide upon its best surface...

They are such an enduring, unique medium for my simple form of Naive art...

As I gaze over the three dimensional surface I can sense its character... The tiny ridges, crystals, and cracks, that form a small world of their own, with all the elements of wild lands themselves... I enjoy them much like the Ancients would a Scholar Rock...

I can, at times, lose myself, in running my fingers along and travelling over a stones' face...

Often... Can I recall too what adventure I was on when this particular rock was gathered up...

My friends chuckle about how my pack or kayak is usually very much heavier coming back than when going out...

Then, as I begin this special process... The same unanswerable question develops as a thought in my mind... "Where will you end up little stone...?" "You have come such a long way", I muse, and are now undergoing a transformation of sorts... Much as I have over these last decades of adventure in the wild places, in slowly gaining an awareness of the importance of giving back...

Although I know I have no control over who will find these, I do wonder about that moment in time, place, and activity... Will they see this as an intrusion in their adventure day... Or will they accept this small gift, and take it away, in the spirit in which it was gathered, painted, mused over, and later placed...

The locations these stones are returned to are usually not as wild as where they were originally found... The vast majority are placed where a human presence has already been long established...

While I understand people will make what they will of them... I hope... As I begin to slowly paint... That the 'Finders' just may reflect for a moment upon this little stones' journey... Why someone would do this... And just maybe they might consider for a moment... What they themselves may choose to give back & pass forward...

Then this little stones' journey really has no end...

DSD

"The Compass Rose..."

The Compass Rose... is often described as an ancient navigational symbol; a figure of direction; and a mandala for Adventurers...

It can be seen in so many forms, like on my Outward Bound pins which I am gazing upon at this moment... Countless references can be found in readings and stories that reflect on the historical values of its use; and in the meanings and analogies for compasses...

The Compass Roses' age old perspectives re-minds me to see adventure experiences through 'long term eyes'... Even as I have posted just before on the significance of experiencing our wild land activities in the moment...

There are powerful metaphors and depth of meaning in well applying concepts of navigation and direction within our outdoor lives, and not just in the most practical sense of finding our way...

This image of a Rose within the Compass holds mystery too in allowing us to set an unknown but intentional course over lands and waters previously only dreamed about...

We have owned many compasses over the years, and still have them all...

I enjoy discovering the Rose as the key placed upon antique maps, which displays the skill of the artist, and have often been put there for luck, especially when the world was uncharted as it is now...

I've often painted elements of the Compass Rose on these small Summit Stones under mountains and oceans, to capture a sense of their essence... If only a hidden one...

Some of the very first Summit Stones were only the painted face of a Compass. Now many have North, South, East, and West woven into the lines of paint on mountains...

I remember... Finding a Compass Rose carved into a large piece of driftwood just off Quadra Island...

I recall... a passage from a book in my youth, whose Author wrote...

"Under the rock was the rose of a compass that was not supposed to be there, carved as clearly into the stone as if etched that very day. If done by the hand of a mason or the elements I could not tell".

I love the sense of mystery that accompanies the Compass Rose...

I believe that while Maps carry promises... Compasses show us one way to fulfill these...

DSD