My own recent experience this early winter both at home and out in the wild places have been all about change, challenge, the unknown, and what I have perceived to very much be adversity...It may seem very unusual to wish the same as a gift for another this sharing season but therein is the power of natural paradox... Typically in my own struggles, I stubbornly resist such uphill trials and have difficulty in reframing them as growth through challenge... Yet the natural world is truly a wild place of such challenges, of constant order yet chaos, of heightened perception about the clear unknown, of desires and elements that push and test an adventurer to and past preconceived limits...
We may not always think about it in these ways but what draws us, what we often seek out there for adventure and fun, is in many ways synonymous with that which adversity itself offers us in return...
When I recall the adversity gifts bestowed upon me for example, I remember... Fears of open ocean, wind and waves... Multi day distant treks and getting very lost... Continuously elusive mountain summits... Unexpected impacts of terrain and altitude... Fitness challenges of injury and age... 5.9 routes that always seemed just beyond my grasp... Caving and my surprising reactions within enclosed spaces... among so many others...
Yet as Goddard & Neumann write about the adventure of climbing: "Realize why you climb. Climbing is not rewarding in spite of its frustrations. It is rewarding because of the very factors that can make it frustrating." Such enduring words as this are gifts of wisdom and insight too...
A. Hobson also said: "Adventure by its very nature, involves overcoming uncertainty, fear, obstacles, adversity and the unknown." F. Youngblood mused too how, "To those who have struggled with them, the mountains reveal beauties they will not disclose to those who make no effort." While Grandfather, a Mountain Elder, said... "Yes it can be a trial. Fear, doubt, pain, discomfort - these can be part of the price to be paid. Yet the gifts you have bartered for with your blood and your breath - what wealth! They will resonate with your very soul."
Such an amazing gift is the adversity within adventure.....
The present is often in the unexpected, the surprising things we discover... most often about ourselves... The reward is in the act itself of being out there in the midst of both the sunsets and the storms... And then we know too with such real certainty of the unopened presents to bestow upon ourselves of other future possibilities still waiting to be found within our wild places...
P. Stoltz & E. Weihenmayer said of this gift: "May adversity become the pathway through which you flourish." S. Covey wrote also; "One key lesson is this: no challenge and adversity, no deeper sense of meaning and purpose."
Is this not a fundamental motive for why we cherish and wish to protect those wild places where we have devoted our precious energy, time, sweat, tears, hopes, and fears...
S. Covey himself acknowledges: "Adversity has inspired me to be an alchemist, to turn lead into gold." And that pot of gold waits for you out there at the end of a wonderful trail of tribulations...
Those who find themselves through adventure adversity are indeed gifted... with awareness and abilities and memories so vivid and valuable... The tears we may experience of frustration can be alchemized into the tears we know within joy... Because as E. Weihenmayer mused further; "Isn't there something incredibly riveting about the human struggle with adversity? Maybe it's because within the struggle lies the essential wisdom we all need to become the kind of person we hope to be".
So, wish upon those stars we may see within another sleepless night in the midst of trial by rock, water, wind and waves... And trek towards a hard to reach horizon of your dreams... Continue to seek out the possibility hidden in that alpenglow just before you begin your most difficult climb... Keep looking for that rainbow wrapped summit that you have trained yourself for over so many years... For within this season, all these things, and adversity too, do I hope and wish for you.....
DSD
