"Happy Halloween..."

Happy Halloween My Friends!

"Your Beautiful Images..."

"A heart of gold is where the rainbow begins.”   Tammy Kubasko

Thank you once more my Friends for allowing your so wonderful inspiring images to be shared here!
My intention with including such images & pictures of beauty and awe, is in support of all the links on my blog under 'Giving Back & Passing Forward'. 
There will never be anything commercial about these musings. 
I have always acknowledged that the vast majority of the images shared here were not created by me, as I am not talented in that way. Many have been sent to me or have been suggestions provided by fellow adventurers, so I am unable many times to give specific acknowledgements unfortunately. In my enthusiasm about your artistry I can also be forgetful when saving them, to record their origin at that time.
If I can make amends for this it will always occur as best I can right when such images are posted. 
I promise that I will also certainly acknowledge others work if you let me know as well, and then I will immediately attribute creative efforts where they clearly belong. 
It is with deep appreciation that your sharing images in this way is felt in support of those who are Adventuring For Another Reason . My whole adventure blog speaks to these initiatives.
You have such amazing pictures, and resonating metaphors within them, reflecting these links who give back and pass forward with their ongoing enduring efforts. 
Please forgive my grey haired forgetfulness in not always following proper internet protocol when it comes to such things. I am a late bloomer in the blogging and social media worlds.
Please also accept my sincere gratitude for your sharing and understanding in allowing for such support of the links here.
Thank you all so very, very much!      DSD      

"Looking For Mystery..."

"Allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, 'There could be more, there could be things we don't understand'..." 

Barry Lopez

"Only Those Eyes..."

There is a time of day, hours before first light, when adventurers - climbers in particular; rise to set out upon the earliest alpine start.
These are hours of the deepest darkness; where the intense mystery and the quiet may close in upon you in either comfort or anxiousness.

On my solo scramble that particular very early day, I was following the old saying of adding time to your day by being earlier up; rather than hoping for extra hours at the end when energy and weather are more unpredictable.
I was moving on the trail before three am, amidst that crispness and cold air the mountains are known for.

It was so very pitch black; such an intense quiet, only the crunch of my boots and uphill nature of my breathing was apparent.

Then...
What I saw I was not sure; not sure at all.
A sense of something, a glimmer of not one but two small points of light.

Just two small points of light - and then they blinked; closed for a short second and then turned and looked more directly, very intently, upon me.

I was no longer alone on that trail, maybe never was, but whatever was now sharing the path, of it all I could see were its eyes.
Only its eyes.

Eyes with a light behind them; reflecting an intelligence of another kind; wisdom of another nature. I do swear they shifted color ever so slightly as they watched me watching them.

After a few moments of quiet stillness my fears and anxieties diminished, were no longer as intense, and were replaced more now by curiosity and a feeling of kinship.
It was a moment of reminder; of looking back to our ancient selves and where we have all come from.
I was reminded too that our four legged fellow companions are always out there, we most often simply do not see them as they view us.

In a playful way as I have often done with my own furred companions, I made myself blink in a long, slow manner, as this is what many animals do when first meeting each other, deciding neither is a threat, and are then prepared to begin to trust.

And these two bight eyes blinked back just as slowly.

It was a connection; an understanding of sorts that I sense may have passed between us then. I moved further along the trail to see what would happen next, feeling clumsy in my movements and the noise I made.
This creature moved along with me, yet only the eyes could I see, and it moved in total and absolute silence.
We continued to share what I believe were a few more moments where each of us was wondering about the other. And then with a wisp of what may have been grey.
It was gone.

Many say or write that the eyes tell all.
When I looked into those eyes I saw our wild past. It affirmed for me yet again that we are not so far from our other family out in the wild places as we may think.

I will never forget those eyes..... DSD  

"One Of Our Secrets..."

"Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot.

A mile becomes a long way,

two miles literally considerable,

ten miles whopping, 

fifty miles at the limits of conception.

The world, you realize, is enormous in a way

that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know.

Planetary scale is your little secret...".

Bill Bryson

"Listening..."

"Listen... 

Listen to the songs of the oceans and mountains, the songs of the forests and the rivers. 

Then listen more closely. 

For you may see that it is you that has been singing...". 

Grandfather, Mountain Elder

"Watch For The Stars..."

"Dwell on the beauty of life.

Watch for the stars.

And see yourself running with them.

Marcus Aurelius

"Of Seeing..."

"The real voyage of discovery consists not only in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes...".  M. Proust

"Look Up And Dream..."

"The Greeks pondered the causes of things. If you had asked them, 'Why are there mountains' they'd give you four causes. The Material cause is the ground has the potential to become a mountain. The Efficient cause is that mountains are just elevated earth standing up. The Formal cause is the earth raised them up. But the Final cause is where it gets interesting. They'd say the Final cause of mountains is they exist because humans need to look up and dream..."
"I've always been fascinated by the why . You know, the oldest questions in the world...". J. Auld   

"A Favorite Story..."

Some time back, Kraig at 'The Adventure Blog' posted about: Video: A Story For Tomorrow , I was intrigued, then so very inspired... 
Here was a very powerful video story of two young adventurers and their journey through Chile, from the Atacama Desert in the north, to the mountains of Patagonia in the south. The images are amazing, the music so very engaging, the voice of the narrator so inviting. 
These few quotes resonated and echoed out each time I played this:
"A long, long time ago, there where two people who looked very much like yourselves, and as with you, they were on a journey, a quest if you will, to find what we all seem to be searching for. For reasons they may never know... They entered... A place where time and direction don't exist. Yet they still pressed on... Each day a new door, a new direction, a new way to be... Until time simply faded away. As with all those who have come before you... They only found me - their future, quietly waiting, and I asked them the same two questions I will some day ask you: Is it possible to be happy with this life? And then I will ask as I do to everyone else: Did you enjoy your story?" 
My thanks again to Kraig for this special past post, and our gratitude for this gift from these two young adventurers at Gnarly Bay, who shared about their wonderful wanderings... 
Please visit and enjoy: http://vimeo.com/36519586 ..... DSD  

"Of Thanksgiving..."

Let's all take a few moments, to simply reflect upon our appreciations, and the gratitude we each have, for having one another in our lives.
A thanksgiving homage for all of you my Friends.

"Deeper Within Our Moments..."

Back in those initial moments,
During all of that intensive preparation.
We each dreamed of eventually being on our way,
Towards a longed for journey of adventure - and then we began...
Up there in those unfolding moments,
Upon that long winding ridgeline,
Over rock we were not sure of,
We felt there would be so much energy and excitement - and there clearly was...
Amidst those very challenging moments,
Throughout the route, and then the crux of this chosen mountain.
We thought there would be those engaging sensations of such focus and concentration - and there certainly were...
Then deep within those forever moments,
Finally upon our so elusive summit.
Within that calmness of winds, clouds, and perceptions,
We hoped for those gentle emotions of contentment and connection - and now there always will be..... DSD 

"Enduring Silence..."

"Much silence has a mighty noise...". Swahili Proverb

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear...". Ram Dass

There are many voices being raised far out there. 

The one voice we each need to hear. The many voices of the most most vulnerable ones.

Often the quietest one, is that which speaks from within such silence.

Nature and our Mother Earth are a silently powerful, yet vulnerable, entity that also must be heard.

Wild place adventures embrace a silence that must be listened closely for too.

Why is our quiet time of musing in nature of such value?

Pythagoras said, "Learn to be silent. Let your mind listen and absorb".

When we wonder in this way, we come closer to discovering our motives; our own personal why's.

When we ponder such, we begin to then create meaning.

These become the very essence for our motivation - for why we go, and for what we do out in the wild places.

Then in understanding what as Nietzsche wrote, "Our greatest experiences, are our quietest moments".

We will then stand up for, and protect, that which we see as important and at the foundation of our intentions and meanings.

All of this provides us with a sense of true purpose.

And that is much to gain from the silence of a quiet moment of musing out there.

A silence that must be heard..... DSD 

"Your Spirit Stone..."

From the very moment I saw it, in those minutes right when I gathered it up, that stone had a wonderful story to tell.
It is truly a beautiful rock, one whose form gives you a sense of its' ancient history. No way would it have been right there in that wild place; no way would it have been as shaped and as polished so finely - unless its motions over the millenia, among all those boulders, from within a nearby glacier, had taken it on its' own timeless journey. 
From the very moment I turned it over and over in my hand, I was beginning to envision what this stone's essence would express. You could sense from its' shape, from the lines upon and within it, from the small chips, even the tinier cracks, and especially from the smoothness over most of its' surface- what its' temperament, strength, and vigour was sharing.
Here, in my hand, was truly a spirit stone...
One whose character had endured all the elements had placed upon it. 
A stone's spirit is an essential thing, one I try to look so closely for and understand. Some have travelled so very far. Many have such unique virtue in the way they have survived the forces over so long that have attempted to break them. We adventurer's can identify dearly with these meanings. 
Right from the moment I gathered it up I felt I knew what this stone wanted to reveal. I sensed I knew where it wanted to be later placed. So right from where I found it as well, I gathered up small particles of every other element, to be 'mixed in' within the bright paints to be layered upon it. 
Now, in your hand, you may have this very stone. 
When I gathered it up I hoped you would find it. I hope too you sense the essence there, those wonderful intrinsic components that made it, the virtue reflecting where it has been, the meanings of the elements in the paints, and the symbolism hopefully it also represents from within your own adventures...
Like Ceremony Stones and Scholar Rocks , your Summit Stone has a spirit and a story all of its' own, always calling to your longings..... DSD