"Focussing Upon Unspoken Words..."

"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language...". M.Buber

Let's watch and listen.....
DSD

My appreciation to J.Zuckerman for the top image of a rescued Grizzly Bear Cub, and to B.Horisk for the lower image.

"Legends Of Temple Lake..."

We first visited Temple Lake when scrambling on Little Temple mountain; an unofficially named peak below the face of Mount Temple, the 3rd highest summit in Banff. Most adventurers about here know of Mt. Temple; some also of Little Temple; few seem to have wandered to Temple Lake itself... Yet many have heard of the legends of this hidden wild place. In countless conversations with fellow seekers I often ask, as this is a place of real mystery and true wonder...

There is just something about that small body of water and its special location, tucked in as it is below the imposing rockface of its namesake mountain. The legends I have been told about, say that the waters discovered there are very special; that the unusual rocks surrounding it have images of many animals found in their shapes... It is a place where, even during a powerful storm, no wind intrudes upon its waters nor through those trees... The age of some of the trees is very, very old yet they are so definitely healthy... And beyond this small lake, nearer Mt. Temple itself, is something of such a real mystery, that it has to be seen for yourself... To actually be touched, to be believed at all.....

I so love such mystery...

I do so enjoy such wanderings as spending quiet time there with the ancient ones and the legends at Temple Lake.....

DSD

"Visioneering......."

"On journeys, I create visions every day. I call it visioneering...". "The power of my belief in a vision becomes so solid that it overtakes my being and gives me the drive and ability to concentrate on making it a reality." M. Beedell

Many see visions to be evolved, long held beliefs... Visioneering can also be those manifestations of foresight, insight, and deep aspirations. These are truly prophetic elemental fuel for our enthusiasms and motivations out there... What has been imagined now becomes into true view...

Can we really be, what we cannot first see...

To visioneer is to adventure on yet another level, with a faculty of seeing and then making real what has only been dreamed about to that point on the compass...

DSD

My thanks to Lehman for the bottom image above.

"Which Is Stronger... Spirit Or Stone..."

I was recently able to catch up on a most engaging and intriguing article by Tom Stienstra called, "Hiking Now, Under A Rock Two Years Ago". (Linked below and whose middle image above I have borrowed, by Kenny Karst, is included there) It is a story of severe adversity and the amazing journey towards recovery of Theresa Ho... A story of trial and challenges, the unforgivingness of stone and accident... But mostly - most significantly, about the power and potency of the human spirit...

In his report, Stienstra writes of the horrendous accident where Theresa was crushed by a moving boulder while scrambling in Yosemite. Her injuries were life threatening and only the immediate response of her husband Tom Lambert, and the heroic efforts of the Yosemite Search & Rescue Team, spared her. Please read Stienstra's article as it truly captures the gripping details of this story.

What also profoundly resonated with me, in what this article and Theresa's story shares with us, can be discovered in the words found there... "She said it's given her time to take stock of what is important, and what is not", and that Theresa "Found herself at a crossroads"...

Words you might hope a courageous survivor would say as they navigate their way through such a journey; words that indicate a different kind of energy, a new growth of vigour within, a potency of vital energy that speaks of something more than physical recovery...

Such words reflect what I have always believed in, and have been drawn to, within accounts of overwhelming and trying experiences, and over the many years of adventuring and connecting with adventurers out there. There is a spirit to be found behind these words... We can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voice, as they tell us their story. There is a depth of being there, a new way of knowing, that we all wonder of and can hopefully learn from as it is shared with us.

On Outward Bound years ago I was first to sense the truth of the saying that 'There is more within us than we may think'... Stories like Theresa's reflect the meaning and spirit of these words too. They illuminate the potential to be discovered when our horizons seem to be obscured by dark mist and imposing gloom.

Imagine for a moment... the stress, the fears, the doubts, when something happpens which can just as easily crush us as any boulder might...

Imagine... the worry, the unknowns, the long tests and trials themselves, and that which visits us in those darkest moments that someone surely faces after such events...

Which is stronger, I have often asked myself... The stone of circumstance that was the cause of such distress, or the spirit that then is asked to respond to this...

Stone is a substance that may wait out a millenia, yet the human spirit to me is so much more enduring...

Stone and rock may last the ages, but the spirit behind such a journey of recovery is everlasting...

There are moments when among the pressures within our lives, during the epics of our adventure experiences too, and especially in the midst of such trials as that which Theresa, and also her husband Tom have faced, where our spirit is so very tested...

Theresa & Tom have graduated yet again.....

We adventure among stone as one of the elements and in doing so we are certainly, humanly vulnerable... Yet the spirit within us is as elemental as any boulder, as any mountain, as any ocean, and those fires that burn within each of us are so powerfully elemental too...

It is the essence of spirit such as Theresa's, and that supporting synergy of spirit of her husband who stood beside her - that we are all drawn to; that I try and grasp for in these musings here; and that something of this inspiring spirit is what I hope to blend in with the painting and the sharing of my small cobblestones.

We cannot help but be touched by Theresa's spirit, and also further inspired by the passion she continues to have to now in returning to the wild places, on another beautiful waypoint within her journey to recovery.....

DSD

Tom Stienstra's Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/26/SPTV18TMK9.DTL

"With The Pipes & Drums....."

It seems so fitting, that when out among the high lands about here, reflecting the Celtic-like mysteries which many high places hold... that a certain music echoes out once or so a year...

We have hiked from here as home base so many times over the decades, climbed the face of nearby Ha Ling, and scrambled routes like Lady MacDonald and Mt Rundle. Mountain biking in this area can be very challenging too. We've also adventured upon and near waters close by like the quietly hidden Grassi Lakes and across the great Bow. There is even caving and a wonderful canyon on a mountain across the way. Yet it is this music that haunts many of my memories...

Powerfully, beautiful piping and drumming that is played when the chosen Highlanders meet for their Canmore Games. This is a music that evokes the spirits of the past, the spirit of our inner desires and goals, and sparks many of the wild places spirits too it seems... These timeless rhythms are reminders of our ancient selves and the Adventurous Clan we all belong to. There is an energy to the pipes and drums that is both boundless and timeless. It resonates across cultures; with both young and old... It echoes from the valley back and forth between each mountain range and across the nearby waters. It echoes of the past, of our youth, maybe even of past lives and of times when we were much closer to the nature of things.

There is just something very special about such echoes out there, something wonderful and nearly indescribable. Such music reflects elements of myth and legend too, those we tell stories about across the campfire, and those we create ourselves when moving over the rock and the trails out there...

I guess we all might be highlanders of a kind are we not my Friends, when we wander among these ranges, dancing to such rhythms...

Listen closely, Dear Finders, for your own such music out there and how it makes your heart beat so. I know later this season I am looking forward to moving again over stone as I listen for the calling of these pipes and drums.....

DSD

My thanks to Dow Williams for the surrounding summit images above:

http://dowclimbing.com

"Hours Lost.....Moments Found....."

Such a long solo sea kayak trip... So very long even though the days out were few... Longer even than many past trips because the journey was not so much of distance but more seemingly through time...

It was around a very distant point I kept going past in order to discover a lovely cove behind those great rocks. There tides and currents and waves all conspired to keep much hidden away, but then would share their secrets if a wanderer was persistent and determined enough.

When first stepping out upon that sand, a slow stretch was needed, and it was then that I felt more than I just saw of this Island being stood upon, more than the very old trees and the even older rocks nearby. I needed a moment to allow whatever was trying to gently seep into my consciousness the time necessary to do so. So I just sat down... half in the ocean, half upon this secluded shell and sand beach.

It was only when my kayak began its slow movement away from me that I realized how far I was drifting myself, and thus began a time where many hours were lost, yet so many moments were found...

I can't say all of what I guess took place, as those endless waves of thoughts moved about, through, and around me. Many I wrote in my journal but too many others drifted away with the gently receding of the tide. I think I must have lived many passings of the moon, maybe even of the seasons, that single day... such was the meanderings of the moments, the wanderings of what we usually think we understand of this concept and metaphor of time.

I remember two eagles, and a few other more cautious birds come and go with the whispering breezes. I was pondering them as they were surely wondering about me and why I was there. Those other previously planned objectives were not to be met that day, but that was no matter, as so many other meaningful and wonderful things developed instead.

I recall losing count of the larger waves I was watching that would roll up in that secret series that they have, but instead gained a sense of some other rhythms that were not known to me before... When another stretch was needed I simply stood up, walked a bit, although you couldn't really call it a walk. It was more of a drifting, strolling movement where my legs moved from rock to rock, sand to tree, through wave after wave, and the rest of me simply followed along. Then there were the endless pauses where so much time was spent just standing, gazing, dreaming, breathing, all of this simply second by second upon second.

The small meals I ate throughout that so alive quiet day were nutritious and tasted so good, as if they were made of more than just food; which is often like that out in such places of wilderness...

Some of the tracks in those sands I knew well, others belonged to those shadow creatures, the very small ones, who only come out at night or when you invite them - more with attitude than with foods they shouldn't have anyway. I sensed them there as well, basking among the rocks, hidden in the sun dappled trees, watching me to see if I had yet to become one of them, and then could be trusted with their treasures...

I think it was also that symphony of those deeply quiet resonating natural sounds that took away any need to keep moving back upon the ocean. Sounds that invited me to linger longer among those musical longings... Sounds which came and went as did those images in my mind of places, people, loves, and other lives we each have all shared out there and back here...

There were none of those other kinds of disruptions during that day of countless hours and endless moments. It was a day I will envision again often when in the midst of traffic and concrete, distractions and disputes, and other so seemingly important demands, which will all eventually ebb away into the background, where they really belong anyway.

We are often so grasping of schedules and other things we are told are so necessary, that such ephemeral moments as those on that island, of subtle but more true importance, are often lost in time...

There is just something about the very waters edge where the ocean holds close to the land, and where the rocks return that embrace, which speaks to our most inner being, and how we live out our lives...

Many of us who wander the wild places can attest to the experience of living a lifetime during the span of a day out there... We know that the clock many times has no function during such journeys of the sun and the moon and the wind. We have all instead felt that the heartbeat inside of us, and of those around us, are the only real measure that an adventurer needs an awareness of... Where the only timely elements that matter are the winds that caress our face, the sun which glides slowly across above us, the waves that gently rock us, and the animals who still themselves and come to sit beside us...

Hours were lost that day... Treasures within the moments were found...

DSD

"Adventure Expressions....."

"The passionate creed of all adventurers regarding life is the expression of desire... perceived as a fullness of meaning... I know that I don't ask during or after strong experiences what I am living for. It is as if I can feel meaning in my body, as if I catch sight of it in the wilderness like a clear thought." R. Messner

It is a paradoxical, beautiful irony of sorts when...

We journey to the wild unknown places only to then discover something out about ourselves...

We often lose ourselves out among the outdoors in order to find the most meaningful things...

We push so hard towards an elusive goal when in so many ways we are already there...

We often discover after... what was really faced during... and the world we believed in shifts yet again.......

DSD