"Returnings..."

It was one of my most difficult solo climbs. The kind of experience out upon a mountain where we remember every detail, pretty much all the moments of our whole high place adventure. This stone has rested here at home for so long now, from that summit to our den, then in that old leather box with so many others. Years of seasons have passed along the way. So many times I have held it in my hand to recall again the challenges endured on that climb. I chose this cherished stone from that summit for a variety of reasons. It was first gathered up because I recognized it as very, very old rock. It was uniquely carved by the elements into a mountain shape of its own, there are also cracks, striations, and whorls upon it that reflect those of the ancient Scholars Rocks . It has now become a perfect medium as well to splash a bit of paint upon it, and to Mix In many special elements with that paint as well.
It seems only fitting now to return this wild touchstone back to its own summit home, as I have long intended to climb there once more...
Back then I had built up a small cairn as there was none there at the time so long ago, and I am hoping to see it too once again. Other than bits of new color on one side, this stone appears the same in most ways after so long, even though I have certainly weathered much more. So while these old legs can still make it up there, it is time to go back.
Like old good close friends, who have shared many long trails and unfolding climbs, and now have to part ways, I will miss this little stone, but it is time to now return it back home..... DSD  
My appreciation for your own images of your returning experiences my Friends.

"Discovering..."

"We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves.

After a journey through the wilderness which no one can make for us...".  

M. Proust

"A Favorite Musing For This Early Adventure Year..."

"Fortunately, more distant summits are always being discovered... Man throws a stone - his desire - into the unknown, then throws himself in pursuit." T. Cesen
Here is this weathered list I see before me. This very old weathered list. Just some scribblings on worn paper, but such a precious thing these become for all of us... 
The ideas started long ago, even before my Outward Bound experiences. Sparks of thought, notes from being inspired, longings I was yet to really even understand.
This old well worn weathered list. 
But still does it always engage me. Especially when an unfolding year dawns and during the beginnings of each kind of adventure season. Every spring too does it seem to call gently, yet invitingly and persistently as well. 
It almost feels at times too, that this old weathered list, has been like another kind of map and compass. Always there for navigation, for setting course, to keep oneself on track.
This weathered, folded, even a bit torn old list. It has aged, evolved, and shows the wear much as we all do. From objectives, to totals, check marks, and completions. Now it is changing once again more to an endearing tally.
This long old weathered list. 
Seemingly, wonderfully, amazingly endless. 
A never completed process it is. So happy am I that this is so. For a list like this is as much an adventure journey as our actual wanderings out among the wild places...
This old, composed, weathered list. I hold it in my hand, but it really has been what has supported me. Always full of hope, inspiration and wonder, enjoyment and awe, and endless enduring forever possible moments. 
For as J.B. MacKinnon wrote too: "A life list is, in the end, nothing more than a tool to look back on our lives and consider how we spent our brief moments on earth. And what if, in those final breaths, you realize - I never gave anything back...".
An old parchment of sorts is this listing. It has charted what was wanted from out there. Then pointed gently to so much more than was ever first realized from within ourselves here..... DSD   

"Salutations..."

"Listen to the salutation of the dawn, look well to this day. For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief span lie all the verities and realities of your existence, the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of achievement. For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes of every yesterday a memory of happiness. And of every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day for it is life. This is the salutation of the dawn..."  

Sanskrit Salutation

"Such Launchings..."

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are for...". John Shedd

The first time this was said on Outward Bound, it struck a few as funny because while this old quote reflected on ships and the ocean, we were deep within the mountains. Yet metaphors and Outward Bound blend together like summits and the sky, so the next few times we heard this we listened with different ears.
Now, looking far back to those origins and beginnings, many of us can see as well how Outward Bound had firstly sent us forth - launched our very selves and lives upon so many amazing undertakings. We have since propelled ourselves towards mountain summits, then launched further when rappelling on our return. We've initiated treks so far, taken first steps out in wild places previously only envisioned, gone forth on the open ocean and among canyons so much farther and deeper than ever expected.
Such launchings...
So many wonderful journeys, all from those first fledgling beginnings. We adventurers are born for this kind of experience. It is elemental, primal, an inherent part of us and what we do when we wander the wild places.
Soon, I am about to 'commence once more', for long days and as many nights, starting on a course that has taken years for it to come into being. I will launch with my sea kayak out towards my farthest, most elusive coastal island yet, with new expansive intentions, towards those dreams only known upon a map until those moments. My goal is the creation of memories, that would not have been a possibility, without being sent off in those truly encouraging ways, so long ago on Outward Bound..... DSD  

"Fathomable..."

"The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly revere the unfathomable...".   

"Over all the mountaintops is peace...
In all treetops you perceive,
scarcely a breath.
The little birds in the forest are silent.
Wait then, soon you, too,
Will have peace...".  
 J. Wolfgang von Goethe

So very many poets and philosophers, were first climbers and adventurers.
We sense why, don't we my Friends.
Dedicated this adventure day to all those who are enduringly Adventuring For Another Reason ..... DSD 

"Unfoldings..."

"The reward of climbing is climbing itself.

The justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing; you don't conquer anything except things in yourself...".  C. Csikszetmihalyi

To all of you Artists Of Being Alive this unfolding new year adventure day.

"Beginnings..."

"The priceless lesson in the New Year,

is that endings birth beginnings,

and beginnings birth endings.

And in this elegantly choreographed dance of life,

neither finds an end in the other...".

C.D. Lounsbrough

"Prevalent in primal lore are stories of beginnings... Sacred myths and cherished legends narrate the origins of the cosmos itself, the earth and its life, and human beings and their purposes. Only if we know how things began, the primal mind seems to say, do we know how to continue..". P. Novak