Hi Friend
Because of my big announcement from the week before, last week I didn’t share anything that had transpired, which was a lot. I thought I would combine two weeks together to catch up. This past week had some challenges as Michelle and I worked to facilitate are upcoming nuptials, but we got it all figured out.
The previous week I hiked the Sperry trail in Glacier National Park, drove to the Canadian border, bought a jar of Huckleberry jam & my first can of bear spray. I embodied the spirit of Montana and loved it! The weather was perfect and the sky was big.
I have never really hiked where the threat of bears was so prevalent. Nor I have done much solo hiking, which I realized after I went for a short hike, that I prefer company. I love love love being in the woods. It’s much more enjoyable walking with someone though. Thankfully I met Charlie at Fish Lake – the turnaround – and we chatted all the way back to the trailhead.
Charlie had been in corporate America until 2014 when he got laid off from an insurance company. He decided to venture off as a vagabond. He had just come in to work security at the Lake McDonald Lodge. He normally works in retail he told me. He’s spent summers at Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mt. Ranier and other cool National Parks.
SEASONS
As you can see in the picture, Charlie was not a 20-something sowing his wild oats. He had lived plenty of life before making the jump to being a “seasonal man”. Each season of the year, he lived and worked somewhere different. I found that fascinating. The seasons in our lives are typically defined by location and occupation. They dictated his.
Charlie was so energized because he was just beginning a new season. Can you imagine starting a new job every 4-5 months and the excitement, fear, anxiety, anticipation, curiosity, learning that would bring? Also, all the new relationships that would be formed. It seemed thrilling and hard – as all good adventures tend to be.
FREEDOM
I marveled at his freedom and faith. Not a spiritual faith per se, but his absolute cluelessness of what the next seasonal job after Glacier would be and his complete assurance he’d find something good. I know people who have homes, steady paychecks, strong community of family and friends and still stress about the future! You know anyone like that?
How can someone who has no stable societal safeguards be content and at peace? How can you and I, who are domesticated, access that freedom where there is no fear of the future? Where do we get our sense of security? As mentioned, I’d never needed to carry bear spray with me before. It was unsettling. Fear certainly messed with my mind.
Instigating Ideas…
1. Go for a walk/hike!
2. How long before this season ends and a new one begins?
3. Where is fear stifling your freedom?
4. Give encouragement to someone who is attempting life with no safeguards.
I wonder if the only way to truly access an Adventurer’s Heart is to be completely detached? I hope not. I’m getting ready to do the exact opposite. I’m going to attach myself so completely to Michelle, she might be looking for some woods to get lost in.
BEST ADVENTURE
Aren’t our relationships the best adventure though? Within each one is a universe of mountainous parks with endless trails. Partners, spouses, kids, friends and colleagues all embody unexpected twists and turns, smooth and rough, up and down, magnificent and scary, hard and easy, majestic and treacherous and on and on…
I never got angry or frustrated with the trail I was hiking. I simply accepted whatever it required of me in that moment. I’m aspiring to be that way in my relationships. The true secret of an Adventurer’s Heart is simply to remain open, continue moving forward and stay on the trail. Life will be thrilling and secure with that strategy.
I hope this week you don’t accidentally unload your bear spray on someone walking with you. Sometimes the incline seems too steep to persist. I hope you find your way to appreciate the challenges the adventure of relationships offers you.