"There Is More Within You....."

Five seemingly simple words.......

But as with many adventure truths, and wild place paradoxes, such apparently simple concepts have endless depths of meaning within them...

As I look in the mirror after an especially challenging training period, on course to a goal I have not tried to repeat in over fifteen years; and after a season of setbacks, distractions & doubts - I am beginning to see these words yet again through another set of eyes...

I reflect back upon the first time an Outward Bound Instructor said this to me on my very first rock climb; then said it again, as I went back to do the same climb... blindfolded...

This saying was also stated before my very first solo; and during the first few steps of the long run back to camp... I watched as this simple mantra was repeated for so many other Outward Bound students; and then observed their joy and exhilaration in finding their own truth of it...

Since then these same words have resonated with me time and time again...

I have listened for their echo in valleys before some of my most difficult climbs... They have been whispered to me over and over again on solo's, during long distance treks, when sea kayaking out among the greater ocean waves, through the forests and old trees while still moving long after sunset, and among the beats of my heart while it sounded so loudly up at altitude... These words keep calling their meaning out.....

This mantra has returned in my mind too at just those moments when I seemed to feel there was little left to draw upon... And then I sensed them being shared with me again...

There was one mountain in particular, where after two unsuccessful summit attempts, and with more than a thousand feet to go on the third try, that Outward Bound Instructors' voice was there just when the impetus was most needed...

There IS more within you...

There is MORE within you...

There is more WITHIN you...

There is more within YOU.....

Each time the emphasis became more focused, more personal... On that day, when finally upon that elusive summit, that Outward Bound mentors creed was proven true yet again...

There is indeed more within each of us... We only need to hear with our third ear; listen more closely... Really see the meanings hidden there... And embrace that truth as it supports us...

There is much about adventures that inherently arrange those challenging elements before us, that we each need to push limits outward somewhat farther; and grow inwards a bit deeper...

These 'simple' words have been such a gift... A present I have mused much over, and often write about here. They have reverberated through adventure tests and trials not just of avocation, but of vocation, of family, of issues both worried and very real...

So when you gaze at yourself in that mirror dear friends... in that compass before a long trek, in the reflection on that lake before a distance paddle, in the crystals of snow and ice during first light of your next climb...

Know the truth of there being more to be found within you as well.......

DSD