"The Hidden Strengths Of Adventure Stoicism..."

To stand on that real storm in such a way, beneath the relentless rain, among those persistent winds, yet still very much with a hint of an ever present smile on his face... That moment, that look, of our Outward Bound Instructor so long ago, was my first sense of the hidden strengths of adventure stoicism...
It was not any kind or resignation we saw, never was there even a sense of giving up, but something especially powerfully else...
The wild places and the elements out there blend in beautiful, amazingly, wonderful ways - but clearly many times not the way we want them to be though, nor the way we may have expected things to turn out, and often many degrees off what we wished they were.
We plan & prepare, practice skills, and hone our minds too, yet we cannot ultimately predict nor control the final outcomes on our wild place journeys. So a different kind of enduring philosophy is needed at times, other levels of fortitude, temperance, patience, and subtle indifference can be useful learned skills too.
There are real strengths in developing a kind of adventurous stoicism like that Outward Bound Leader had. For in learning about acceptance of the way things are, in going anyway regardless of those inevitable twists and turns, by continuing on and embracing the surprises, the unexpected, and in reframing it so, we surely further our love for the mystery and the unknowns of it all even more.
All such adventure challenges and our forthcoming efforts then brings out something else latent from deep within us, and asks each of us to become something more. To go beyond the person we started the trail or climb as, and to become the adventurer we each know we can be out in the wild places. For being an adventure stoic at times, is yet another subtly potent way of doing just that..... DSD