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"If you always give... You always have...". Proverb
Time for celebration and enjoyment,
Moments of such connection and remembrance,
Then out upon courses we all hope to set,
So renewed in our enthusiasm and commitment.
A very happy holidays, and season of sharing, to you all, Dear Friends, Dear Finders, and a very happy new year to all of us who wander..... DSD
"Giving is the highest expression... In the act of giving, lies the expression of my aliveness...". E. Fromm
"We make a living by what we get... We make a life by what we give...". W.S. Churchill
Dedicated this adventure day, within our shared season of giving, to those Partners In Placing who pass forward smiles all along the way... DSD
"The greatest gift you can ever give another person, is your own happiness...". E. Hicks
"The greatest gift is part of thyself...". Emerson
"The heart that gives, gathers...". Tao Te Ching
"For it is in giving that we receive...". St. Francis Of Assisi
"The gift of truth excels all other gifts...". Buddha
At first it seemed, as if it is we who have found the mountains.
Then we more surely sense that it has been our elusive summits which have actually found us...
In the beginning we thought, we've now also discovered canyons and caving.
Then it eventually became more clear, that those deep wild places have indeed uncovered much within us as well...
When starting out, heading among those long uncharted valleys, rivers, and forests, we hoped for such unknowns.
Then surely as the dawn, what was also revealed were endless enlightenment's about our very selves...
Back then we pondered, what will we discover when paddling far out upon the open ocean.
Now, we very much know that it is those amazing expansive waters that really find each of us too...
Stepping for the first time upon a distant coastal island after a storm, our expectations were for quiet, and the calming of the elements.
Then we were gifted with rainbows, such awe and contentment, also made up of our own elemental emotions and perspectives...
Initially we mused, so much about the many trails we've navigated and outwardly followed.
Only later to truly feel, that these have become paths we also genuinely inwardly wander as well...
Long ago, when out first adventuring, we believed we would find so much out there.
We certainly have...
Then our journeys found us, and more within was wonderfully discovered than we ever first realized.
So grateful for this we all are..... DSD
"It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night, and made the day worth living...". F.S. Fitzgerald
"Memories are perhaps the best gifts of all...". G. Gaither
"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted...". Aesop
"As we work to create light for others, we naturally enlighten our own way...". M.A. Radmacher
"There are souls in this world who have the gift of finding joy everywhere, and leaving it behind them where ever they go...". F.W. Faber
Dedicated this adventure day to all of those Partners In Placing who adventure so very far and also share smiles all along the way.
What would I have done without you...
Now, this is a pondering that I have often so intensely wondered about: what on earth would I have done without all of these adventures...
You glorious mountains and your elusive summits, with those cherished challenges, and endless subtle secrets that you have shared.
You memorable meandering rivers and northern lakes, reflecting all of what you have so generously given back, in proportion to our efforts to learn your ways.
You silently beautiful canyons, and those wondrous desert towers, with your contrasts, connections, and ancient stories about time and harmony.
You vast valleys and deep dark forests, with your slow, deliberate sharing of such natural power and mystery, from so far out there - only to then return me to the place I began, while teaching us all how to also finally then discover such magic back here as well.
It is very hard to imagine, what I would have done without Outward Bound, and the courses they set me upon of so many life directions those long years ago, when really, truly, introducing the wild places to one very young back then.
It is even more difficult to envision what would I have done without all that hard earned knowledge, shared with me by so many - the countless ways and means of navigating both the trails out there, and also those internal ones of our lives too.
What on earth would I have done without all of you elements, over these many decades, in the midst of my own trials of health and life, along with those forever cherished connections you also gave, in our close fellow adventurers as companions and friends.
Gratefulness is a concept we wanderers all deeply sense.
Gratitude is an experience that lingers longer than many others.
Thank you so very much, for what would I have done without you..... DSD
"How little we may understand of the gifts we have been given, or the shape of the path we took to reach this...". Anon
"Every day that dawns is a gift to me...". H. Matisse
"The meaning of life is to find your gift... The purpose of life is to give it away...". Picasso
"The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy, is the only real climate you will ever live in...". A. Montapert
"It was the outstretched hands, the giving that mattered...". A. Proulx
"A wise woman who was travelling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream... The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him... She did so without hesitation... The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime... But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman... 'I've been thinking', he said, 'I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious... Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone'...". Anon
A parable of meaning, within the context of the gift of a simple stone, amidst this season of sharing and giving..... DSD
"It is written even still... that the giver should be thankful; only then is it a sharing... Somebody accepted you through your gift...". Osho"In becoming a giver... we establish an affinity with all creatures in the world...". DogenMy sincere gratitude to you all Dear Finders, and Partners In Placing , for your having allowed me to gift you with a small Summit Stone..... DSD
What we see in a mountain, is not just rock.
What we feel within a river, are not only the moving waters present.
That which we embrace of a coastal island, is not simply an isolated wild place.
Those depths we begin to realize about canyons, are not only about darkness and the unknowns.
That which we come to understand during hikes and treks, isn't reflective of just distances and times.
The messages given by a forested valley, are not only about the terrain.
How we journey among northern lakes, is not really about the travelling.
What we perceive within our mountains, is clearly not only about stone.
The truth of it is - that attaining our elusive summit, will not be the end of our ascent...
Adventure at first maybe seems to just be a word.
Yet, then, becomes an experience of so very much more than ever first realized..... DSD
Dedicated to all those who Adventure For Another Reason .
"There is a potency in solitude that surpasseth understanding...". R. Schultheis
"It is in solitude, in quiet communion with nature, that we each reach most deeply into truth...". S. Campbell
"All at once, without warning, two men emerged from that impossible country. They carried packs on their backs, and they were weather beaten and distilled to bone and muscle. But what I remember best of all is that they were happy and whole... Then they walked away and I was left, still awestruck, looking out over into the huge, black, mysterious wilderness...". Colin Fletcher
"In the high country of the mind, one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty, and to the enormous magnitude of the questions asked...". R. Pirsig
"Shan: Mountain. The ancients believed that there was something called the mountain spirit...". Deng Ming-Dao
"You will not find all your reasons in these mountains or on those lakes. What you find out there you had within you all along. These places are just a trail towards those lands inside of you that have yet to be travelled...". Grey Wolf
"Climbing can offer the same flood of newness, even after years of doing it, if you can let yourself be engrossed by what your experiences are telling you. Expectations become irrelevant. Your mind opens...". Goddard & Newman
"Remember... The gifts of the four directions. The East is the new day, renewal, innocence, hope, joy, and new beginnings. The South is learning, preparing, strength, sensitivity, goals, and reflection. The West is the unknown, of dreams, meditation, going within, and a place of testing. The North is about wisdom, moderation, teachers, elders, fulfilment, and memories. There is no ending in the journey of the four directions...". Grey Wolf
Those last adventure days, I was pondering a gentle awareness...
For how much we all so enjoy the preparation, planning, and training that we do.
Then I was reminded too about the endless fun within our adventures, how much the laughter always echoes out, and the embracing, rousing, excitement of it all.
Of course, there are the motivating inspirations, and the enthusiasms, that drive us to keep going. Even as the inherent challenges appear, which we gladly face into.
Then too, I recalled the invigorating energy that, even while we're tired, seems to grow within us along with our smiles.
I thought as well about the warming company of our friends, which is so valuable in what we share, as we journey long and far.
Recall how our thoughts spark, much like our campfires, about those enduring summit sensations, and how everything is just as it should be for a while up there.
Then we reflect upon those deep feelings, those heartfelt contentment's, that we bring back with us from such amazing experiences. This truly keeps us adventuring again and again.
Always remember, we've also each mused ourselves, over the endless, timeless, lovely memories, and among those forever moments, about which we are all so grateful for.
Then I opened my eyes...
With that dawning awareness of being so already contented within such musings, already so very happy.
For we adventurers know the depths and breadth of gifts from our wild places don't we my Friends.
It was then, time to get up, and go wander..... DSD
"Deep inner shifts may occur in response to disciplined contemplation, grave illness, wilderness treks, peak emotions, creative effort, spiritual experiences... The transformed self is the medium. The transformed life is the message...". M. Ferguson
"Climbs end, but the deep-stirred psyche never rests... Always there, human hopefulness resounds, the dreaming faith that, in a world of rock and ice, something is about to happen...". D. Roberts
"Something happened on that descent, something I have tried to figure out ever since, so inexplicable and powerful it was...". R. Schultheis
"We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know it for the first time...". T.S. Elliot
That adventure day, when I could see the end of the trail approaching, there was that sense of both contentment, and yet a gentle tired kind of sadness as well.
I recognize we all experience this occasionally. When we each attain a really elusive adventure goal out there, with all of those so special celebratory emotions. Then at times we sense upon completion a touch of those other feelings of, 'Oh, Its over'...
Pretty natural it seems, to truly experience both, when we invest ourselves so intensely and purposefully within our journeys.
So, I did what we wanderers often do and pondered this a bit, while allowing myself to experience all those musings and emotions all at the same time.
Then, as I rested upon a further mountain, after having had that similar summit rush of these sensations, I reminded myself of that very old saying, 'that when one trail seems to end, another path always opens up'...
I reflected too on another old saying that, 'while we may shed a tear about such an experience being over, we can clearly smile as well for having lived those forever moments'...
There are many manifestations of these wise and wild old ponderings.
So, then, if we keep ourselves open to what is always out there on the horizon; if we accept that there is always more within us than ever first realized; if we blend with the truths that there is never an end to the creation of amazing memories, possible connections, and shared wonderful stories - then our trails will forever keep on going so much farther, higher, upward, onward, and inward...
Seeming endings always then become new beginnings and as Muir reminds us as well, "This grand show is eternal... It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapour is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in turn, as the round earth rolls".
Happy endless trails my Friends..... DSD
"I gave my heart to the mountains the minute I stood beside this river with its spray in my face and watched it thunder into foam, smooth to green glass over sunken rocks, shatter to foam again... By such a river it is impossible to believe that one will ever be tired or old...". W. Stegner
"There is something so elementally attractive about a river stone, or a rock outlined against the sky...". Deng Ming-Dao
"You will find more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters...". St. Bernard
Echoes all...
Endless soundings, meaningful longings, lasting remembrances, from our forever moments...
A raven's call.
Powerful ocean storms.
Huge winter coastal waves.
Crackling of a fire.
The quiet of a forest trail.
Crisp winter snowshoeing.
"On belay!".
"Just glad I'm here".
"We made it".
A canyon's deep mysteries.
Sleeping under countless stars.
A close friend's encouraging comment.
The crunch of ice on a northern lake.
Veils of moving mists.
A river's endless wanderings.
Wind through tall trees.
Thunder in the distance.
A wolf's lonely voice.
Creaking of a pack.
Touch of a paddle to water.
A loon's calling out.
Shifting of ancient rocks.
Silence atop a summit.
Echoes all...
So many others awaiting. To be heard even just once more.
From within our forever journeys..... DSD
"You will feel me beside you; see my face in the stone; hear me on the wind...". Grandfather, Mountain Elder
"What a curious encounter between a man and the high places... He climbs it, signing his work... A rock as beautiful as any obelisk...". G. Rebuffat
"Hello altitude, my old friend; back to temper me, yet again...". Mountain Guide
"Every time I went up there, a kind of magic happened to me: I felt a nameless wildness flow into me, a strangely serene longing for tundras, unbroken forests, rivers and mountains without end... I changed, into a benign kind of lycanthropy...". R. Schultheis
"Being in such a place is unlike any other place you could be; the fact that a human being could be in such a place climbing, moving upward, being in control, still making rational decisions is just a very exciting and almost mystical feeling...". R. Briggs
"In some mysterious, inexplicable way, there are valleys and mountains all around us that no one has ever seen or mapped - a world hidden right here, as if in another dimension...". E. Bernbaum
"Treat each few meters as a smaller summit so that each small ascent is a victory... Each step has its own meaning and is important in its own right...". N. Shulman
"It meant going deeper into places in yourself that had to be found and conquered... Turning the mirror inside out and backward. It's sports under a rock. And the rock must be turned over to find it is inside each of us... All I know was that I was moving forward, and where I ended up was a question that would have to answer itself...". K. Johnson
"It is what the mountains truly reveals about us that has any lasting value...". D. Breashears
The wild places, and especially the high places, hold so many truths...
Those real honesty's from out beyond, which are also very accurate for each and every one of us as well.
These are trustworthy perceptions that our adventures always reflect back upon ourselves.
The sincere meanings for why we do what we do out there, and then back here too.
They are the elemental priceless promises for who we really want to be.
All truly revealed by our intentions and efforts, our endurance, our connections with one another, and our willingness to embrace the essence of such adventurous meaning, direction, and purpose.
Then the actual eventual memories created themselves, from our long wanderings, also become such truly and deeply held personal beliefs.
Seemingly a simple thing of rock and snow and ice, of winds and height and light.
But what our mountains slowly reveal about us - such eternal gifts of truth they are..... DSD
"Fortunately, more distant summits are always being discovered... Man throws a stone - his desire - into the unknown, then throws himself in pursuit...". T. Cesen
