Ready for Life...

It's never a dress rehearsal, always sense for sense, delicious second for second r e a l!  You don't have to understand it, only realize that in everything you always have a choice. It may not be the choice you desire, or the most optimal one, but in the end you always have a choice, regardless of how small and insignificant or large and overwhelming it may appear!

So... choices eh! Ya. That simple, right... could be, if you step aside from your ego and take an optimistic, humble look at things! Ouch! Uh huh, that's right, you read it right! "But I don't have an ago challenge"...great, then keep that open, humble mind and keep reading!

To every choice there is a set of consequences. It's super important to be able to understand the impact of those consequences, as they impact those around you as well as you! Rule number one... your choices and their inevitable consequences must be ethical, moral, non-injurious to self and others and legal in the simplest sense of the word! This is the basic foundation for getting ready for life. There is more...

Now that we understand the concept of choice, I can introduce the next most important ingredient in a happy, successful life. Think and choose to be positive. That one is not rocket science, although if you let your 'ego' get in the way, it can be a monumental task to be sure! So many books have been written on that topic alone, it's staggering. Learn to channel every thought into something positive, especially before you open your mouth! You may indeed create your own sense of serenity and well being by choosing to see and be the positive in all things. The next one will bake your noodle, because it is the simplest, most often overlooked and taken for granted ingredient in life.

It is a simple four letter word that can fill your very existence with substance and worth... l o v e. I'm not talking about sex, or tween infatuation, but the most humble origins of the word, the opposite to it's darker brother... hate! Love yourself first and foremost... having a challenge with that, oh - CHECK the ego, because that would be your challenge! Cool with it, right on, then let's just slide right into the most important ingredient in life and lay it all right out in the open, on the line, whether you like it or not! If you have a challenge with this one, then Freud would spit it like it is... your ego controls your life! Get help!

Understand that we are all spiritual beings. Simple. That's it, just that we are all connected with everything at a much higher level than most of us choose to function. I'm not talking about Reverend Jimmy spitting at you over the tube to give him all your worldly possessions, just the fact that all things are interconnected with a flux of spiritual energy. Ancients drew the symbol of the spiral in caves and on clothing and pottery, it's symbolism being the spiral of abundant and never-ending, interconnected energy. We are all a part of it, all things are! This energy is there whether you choose to acknowledge it or not... makes no difference to it! If you do, and you realize that we are all a part of it, then you acknowledge that "God", or the "creator", or whatever label you choose to put on it, is within each and every one of us. We can channel that spiritual energy into our daily lives, and combined with everything else it makes us whole, allows us to have an innate sense of calm in who and what we truly are all about! So there you have it. Be happy. Choose this for yourself and the loved ones around you! Dare you...

Jack & a Sultry Heat

It's May here, sprigtime, with delicate scents of Lilac and Carnations drifting enticingly through my senses on a lazy breeze! With the mercury pushing thirty-one lovely degrees celcius, and a cloudless, azul sky there is little to complain about! All that's absent is a horizon that is unmistakably imprinted with the jagged, snow capped peaks of a million beautiful mountains! This is after all, Ontario... an unmistakably beautiful province with warm lakes to dip toes adorned with brightly coloured nails, to launch canoes and whitewater boats, to cruise and ride to your hearts content... all the while making selfless donations of quarts of your blood to the hungry but discreet blackflies and mosquitoes! A feast for your senses, truly, as well as the local insect populus!

An experiment probably tried by countless outdoor minded Ontarians... drink ample amounts of Jack and lets see if the critters actually get stoned from sipping on our blood! Ya, maybe a bit tainted, a hint of remorse and intense longing... for what you ask? Have you been to the mountains? If you're an outdoorsy type, and the answer is yes, then I'm preaching to the quire, aren't I!?! Never been you say... make it a point, a goal, one of those things on your bucket list! If you've been and it has not had any effect on you at all, then find another blog... 
Sipping the Jack, feeling the sultry sting of humidity prevalent here in this wonderful province, looking at clouds on the horizon and imagining with brief sparks of intense rapture that they are indeed mountains and you have managed to teleport to where you truly want to be... more Jack please, it's working... until tomorrow!

Airport Savvy...

Travel... the act of getting from one location to another (this can be whatever you want it to be, and can be undertaken by whatever means of transportation). Road Trips are whole different species of locomotion which adventure travelers seem to gravitate more to... must be part of the experiential thrill of the process being a means to the action! More on 'road trips' in an upcoming blog! Airport to airport however, is undeniably, "travel"... a mechanical means to the action... BUT pointedly has its very own menu of savory delights!
Waiting... (one of the most, in-your-face items on the menu)... waiting in lines, to get from one step to the next in a defined process, for scheduled times where one may proceed from one to the next step in that defined process, for confirmation of your own intelligible sanity, and sometimes even just to get into the banyo! Travelling in pairs, working as a fluid team is one thing, but going it alone, solo, that's an entirely different menu! Something as elementally simple and urgent as visiting the restroom becomes a stressful journey into the unknown! Add being in a foreign country where you have not the luxury of communicating in a language that is intelligible to you, and the fun begins! Stay tuned for an account of one climbers 'fun' travelling solo!

Anticipation...

What is this word, the emotion that it describes? The feeling, the experience becomes extremely intense as one gets closer to the moment anticipated... and if there is no definitive space in time where this will occur, the intensity lingers on...

Let's increase the high, and slide in, that even the experience of that 'moment' is not defined... not sure what to even expect... like prayer flags fluttering in the breeze, then being slammed by a 140 km/hr blast of infamous Patagonian spirit wind... you really have no clue until the exact moment in time, the millisecond where it goes down, where your senses go crazy with the euphoric realization of the moment!

So we linger in time and stretch out the intensity of this concept... we want it more urgently, need it to last longer, implore it to take us past the ragged fringe of our limits... I have been called a 'junky', an 'adrenaline whore' and other things... are we? Or is that a crass label thrown by those whose ego's create a longing sense of envy, of perverted jealousy... and I have not even yet contemplated to endure the sweet smoke of a different high... that my friends is yet a different exploration of the term...
 'a n t i c i p a t i o n'!

Getting there...

Everything is a part of the end result. Many call it the 'journey', the 'process'... So you want to climb in Patagonia... Getting there is part of the high! From where I live, the flight is 21 hours direct, and if you have the pleasure to be on standby, or dirtbag by hopping on cheap non connecting flights it's more like days...
You become the watcher, the participant, the watched...
Then it happens, you get there! Now what... still part of the everything leading to an eventual end result... hope it never comes to that, you want it to just keep happening!
Culture shock... slow down, fresh air, winding roads... the ghosts of Patagonia seep through every turn, every bump, slam you with every gust of infamous Patagonian wind...
Stay tuned, I'll be back with fresh perspective and lacy details of "high" in Patagonia... Cerro San Valentin... the Northern Ice Cap... c o l d and high... ciao for now mes amigos!