This isn’t exactly a New Year’s resolution. I continuously make course corrections in life. This is one of them.
It has been a little over two years since my last post. I’ve made a lot of course corrections over this time; some of them pretty hard, but necessary. One of these changes is the subject of today’s post, “A Return to the Wild”.
It started in the spring of 2017. I had moved into my house and was beginning to feel a little run down from the whole process. I needed a break. I purchased my first stand up paddleboard (SUP) and dedicated the summer to finding my nature groove once again. It’s January now and my board is tucked away for the Winter. It didn’t slow me down. I happen to love snow. Luckily, we’ve been getting a lot and I’ve been taking advantage of it. My cross-country skis have seen a lot of action so far this Winter, but last weekend I took a spill in order to avoid a tree. It was the kind of wreck that requires a few minutes of mental checks to make sure everything is working properly; legs are good, ankle hurts but good, thumb is jammed but good, ribs sore but good, wipe snow off goggles, get up, test balance, good. I survived. Wiping out is fun if you live to tell about it. However, I did decide to take a short break from skiing to let my ankle heal. We’ve had a bit of a warmup and most of the snow is gone so there’s no real temptation to get back on my skis. I don’t really see it as a setback because it forced me to think about something else besides ski, ski, ski. I became more contemplative or one might say I became more mindful of my surroundings. Every brittle branch snapping in the cold, the sound of water trickling, bird calls, squirrels scolding each other, planes in the sky, and the sound of wind all became a symphony once again. It’s hard to hear the symphony when your mind is focused on avoiding trees.
I’m always making course corrections. Sometimes it’s good to look back to see where you’ve been to make better choices about where you need to go next. Sometimes it’s best to just let things happen. That’s how I feel about writing and outdoor adventure. “Sometimes adventure doesn’t start until something goes wrong”, said Yvon Choinard. My gimp ankle told me to head back into the wild to see what it has to say. These are their stories.
The Heron 