"A Farther Calling..."

 

It was such perfect timing, was this truly amazing calling...
A haunting, yet inviting summons it seemed.
The distant howl of a lone wolf calling out during my very early alpine start back then. One lone caller, giving voice to that adventure day and for another solo wanderer...
You could only make it out for some lingering moments. Yet that call gave meaning to many deep longings.
The language of that caller, was in my mind envisioned as an Elder Grey Wolf , and truly inspirational, potently significant, and very moving.
Such a beautiful cry speaks to so much - expression, symbolism, motivation, metaphor, and enduring meanings.
What is called to mind, then called into being, reflects upon reasons for why we do anything of what we do when we wander the wild places.
What is called forth within those intonations also speaks to our intentions for who we want to be on our wilderness journeys.
It was a calling that roused so many purposeful aspirations.
A voiceful memory never to be forgotten.
Then, when looking out upon that sea of summits, and those deep endless valleys, we each too will always find such song deep within ourselves..... DSD 

"Quietly Calling..."

"Wilderness is not just a place... It is also a state of being...". G. May

"If you are willing, and if you listen very gently and carefully, you will sense that this mysteriousness is ready to lead you, guide you to where you need to be... It is your wilderness calling...". G. May

Somewhere, something, is calling to you my Friends...

Whatever your wild places may be for you,

Where ever your wilderness may exist,

However you seek your adventure experiences out there,

Somewhere, something, is calling especially for you...

Such callings seek out our own answerings - and those answers, we know, are very personal, very individual, very special for each of us. You will be the only one to hear it calling in that way...

Our responses to these quiet callings often reflect freedom, fun, companionship, and challenge. Then our wild place adventures become the means for us to become the person we want to be - out there and then back here as well.

Somewhere, something, is calling to you..... DSD

"Of Whispers..."

 

Whispered somethings are always mixed into the gentle sounds of small streams deep within canyon walls... They become part of the music of rain too, both as it falls and then when it strikes about us... Whispered somethings can be sensed just beyond the mists and fog of settled clouds on our solo summit days... They are heard as well when the winds move through old growth trees among the giant coastal forests...

These voices speak so quietly within the waves that caress countless small stones laying patiently upon an open ocean beach... Whispered somethings will always be found among the breezes that pass over shimmering midsummer heat as it moves across ageless desert rock...

We intuitively know they are there... We feel how they call for our return...

We have all heard them... All sensed these so special whispered somethings...

Sounds so soft, voices so quiet, they speak to our very being, say things to each of us in our own unique adventure ways...

They always say just what we need to hear, using a language for our own inner ear.

They help us understand what it means to balanced in mind, body, and spirit while wandering.

There are so many special wild places where they patiently linger, these ancient somethings, that we quietly listen for out there...

DSD

"For All That Is Given..."

"Hidden in and under the mountain, and all around it, is a mystical, linear elegance, an atmosphere, the long jewel-like ridges. There is a meaning for us, an extended journey, a project of inspiration to which our minds will be apprenticed...".

"The mountains... are an exultant image whose mirrors create the effect of endlessly receding planes. Their image is suddenly clear, then is blurred, an expression of our presence..."

"The mountain... obscures itself among other mountains, finds secrecy in its weather and moods... There is a strangeness, one of a beautiful worth. A storm breaks. We are called to its prismatic, poetic mood, a beauty that pervades every part of us... for all that is given, and that we are blessed to know, and must leave hidden." Pat Ament

"Steadily..."

 

"I think that one of the lessons of climbing is perseverance, having a vision and continuing on in spite of obstacles, putting one foot in front of another steadily until you get to your goal. Learning that lesson in mountaineering helps you apply it to all other activities." A. Blum

"Surely..."

"Let your mind be quiet, realizing the beauty of the world, and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store. All that you have within you, all that your heart desires, all that your nature so specially fits for you - that waits embedded in the great whole... It will surely come to you... ". E. Carpenter

"Echoes Of A Flame..."

 

There is a small island... among many others... off the coast of a larger island...

A very favorite place of mine to wander by sea kayak. I had never set foot upon this particular point of rocky shore until during one very, very, low spring tide. I was just barely able to land for a brief stretch... I often wonder what I may find during such moments... new vistas, unseen terrain, maybe not touched by any other... something from our past... And that was the echo that I not so much saw, as sensed that sunny day...

Among the trees, above the waters, tucked into the rocky shore... was an ancient fire ring...

How ancient I am never sure, but old enough for trees to grow tall among the placed rocks of this ring... old enough for there to be no remains at all of a flame burning, except for some blackening barely left under the rocks used there...

But still... here this was... and I wondered over it; pondered further too about who had been there, how very long ago, and with what echoes they had lived their lives with...

They would have been looking then at pretty much what I was viewing at this present moment... They stayed longer in this spot than I would, to likely eat and sleep by this warm fire. The flames would have flickered off the nearby trees with the echo of their laughter falling upon the company of the ocean... Their presence would have been reflected in many ways as they lived that day among these secluded islands...

Such echoes create images in our minds eye of what was, even at times of what could be...

I remind myself that our actions in the wild places may echo and resonate for eternities just as these fire rocks have...

I ask often of myself too... what will we pass forward to be heard generations from now, and who will sense the reverberations of our intentions and adventures of today...

What an interesting connection over time... From ages ago until these moments; from then until now... from them to each of us... in the simple echo of a flame.....DSD

"Echoes Of A Quote..."

 

"Climb these summits and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." J. Muir

It was an Outward Bound instructor who was first to introduce me to this special quote by Muir... It is one I have pondered, mused, and planned from over these many years... A quote that set directions for me from all points of the compass...

Did you know that the actual writing of this quote is found to contain either the word 'mountains' or the word 'summits'... While being told the first version, the latter now resonates with me as the image of 'summits' has come to mean a great deal more too than the very top of a single mountain...

Some state Muir wrote it both ways as he did with many other notes and journal entries, when he wrote and then revised his musings, at different levels, after different experiences, and over long years of ponderings...

That Outward Bound instructor was so right, and Muir's words have indeed rung so true, over these past decades of wild place journeys and within so many adventure seasons...

I often re-read this 'first quote' while looking towards the horizon... for many more of such summits, sunshine, winds and storms, are waiting... patiently waiting... to be discovered and enjoyed out there..... DSD

"Of Motives..."

"If adventure has a final and all embracing motive it is surely this: We go out because it is in our nature to go out and climb mountains and to sail the seas, to fly the planets and plummet into the depths of the oceans. By doing these things we may touch with something outside or behind, which strangely seems to approve our doing them. We extend our horizon, we expand our being, we revel in the mastery of ourselves...". W. Noyce

"Our Story With No End..."

 

That is what our adventures are... A story with no end...

A story of promise, of possibility, desire, and high expectations. The wild places inspire these stories and we become trusting of such experiences from out there.

We remember the uplifting moments, the fulfillment's, and the transcendence's of the mountains...

We remember the knowings, the innocence, and the expressions of the desert...

We remember the potentials, the futures, and the feelings that the rivers share...

We remember too the oceans and lakes with their newness, the breakthroughs, and their messages of hope...

Wild places for many often especially create experiences of freedom, sometimes for redemption, even emancipation's and forgiveness...

They are a story too so phoenix like in spirit, with endless new beginnings and meanings, grand memories and sensing of something 'more than' to be found...

So many musings to be discovered, so much to be enjoyed, all inviting us to go onward, to go forward, to go beyond. A spirited story with no end, as there doesn't need to be, because the wonders are also in the journey and the telling of the story itself too..... DSD

"Telling Us Secrets..."

"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 

"One Step Beyond..."

 

We never know what might be just one step beyond...

We may never see what may be reached for just past our last effort,

We might never realize what possibilities may be just out of sight,

We may never grasp what is just beyond what we think we know, a bit further away from what we believe to be fact,

We will never know, never see, never realize, nor grasp...

If we do not stay the course,

If we are not continuing to challenge perceived limitations,

If we will not allow ourselves to become all of who we could be out in the wild places...

We never know, if we don't go, that simple one step beyond...   DSD

"One By One..."

One little piece,

One small portion,

One step, one thing,

One day, one night...

We don't really climb a high mountain all at once.

We more truly reach just for the next bit of rock...

We don't actually hike those long valleys endlessly.

We more simply take just that next step...

It's not about the distance it seems,

It's more about the focus we take and the spirit we bring.

The task of the whole,

Then becomes the wonder of the one's...

So on that day, during that moment,

When taking just the next step,

We are then on our way,

To being present..... DSD

"There Is A Place....."

There is a place we go in the mountains...
It is a place of resounding quietness, of gentle winds, talking breezes... a place of rock and trees, of stone so stark, yet inviting...
There is a place we go in the mountains of such cold moving waters... a place barren yet nourishing... a place of seasons both of life and in death...
It is mostly a place of memories... this place we go in the mountains...
I am looking at pictures of this place right at this moment... and in my minds eye I can recall the seasons passing, while my senses still feel the warmth, the cold, the sun, the night...
I have hiked and climbed in this place with my partner and close friends, sharing so much... I have been out there in solitude as well... Yet never really alone...
This place we go in the mountains is most especially somewhere we have privately named for someone who is no longer with us... A quiet person of great strength who does not share these particular elements with those of us still wandering...
We visit there each adventure season to be with him again... to join in remembering the way he lived his life and the amazing spirit he was... is...
When out solo, I talk with him still... I tell him of my year, the trials, successes, all the moments... This year in particular when by myself, I found unexpected tears welling up of joy and sadness when approaching this place we go in the mountains...
This terrain and his spirit provides much comfort and solice to me, yet a challenge too... He was more of an adventurer than I will ever be... He was able to see and understand things from a height I've only dreamed of attaining...
We all need such places to journey to...
This is a place where I learned about true gratitude, and where I feel humbled... Where I reflect upon how he was so grateful even when he was given so little...
It reminds me not to take for granted what he was never gifted with - physical health...
He never had the chance to trek to this place in the mountains we have quietly named for him...
He couldn't... He was too ill all of his short life... His legs would never carry him as far as his mind had already wandered... His existence was one of pain and suffering, yet his endurance was endless... The adventure life race he ran was more grueling than any we could invent to challenge ourselves with...
There is a place we go amongst the summits to remember a soul who never climbed a mountain, never set foot upon a trail, never paddled the ocean or any northern lake, never once rappelled into a deep canyon... yet he was more in touch with the spirit of adventure than many...
There is a place we go... He went there too... in his minds eye, when the pain became too much... He said it gifted him with a sense of comfort...
There is a place we go in the mountains to wonder how someone so weak could be so strong... How someone who never attained any summit, could inspire so many... How someone so pressed could laugh and smile so much...
There is a place we go in the mountains... to acknowledge that this wild area is only there because of the many who have passed it forward for each of us to adventure within... He was never able to go himself, but he knew this and would still say that such a wild place is a 'gift twice given'... Given to us to find ourselves in, and for us to learn about then giving to others...
I have such good memories of this place we go in the mountains... And he beckons to us all dear Finder... to see through his eyes what many may never perceive... to believe in what most never experience... to savour each precious moment out in the wild places... to enjoy the energy and strength within this physical shape we have been gifted with...
He is one of my most potent inspirations...
There is a place we go in the mountains to remember that while his form has returned to the elements we will all share too soon... his spirit wanders freely still...
In that place we go in the mountains.....
DSD