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Integrating. Re-emerging.

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“I follow the way of it, which is always revealed in the moment. When you no longer have a will of your own, there is no time and space. It becomes a flow. You don’t decide, you flow from one happening to the next, and everything is decided for you. To respect the way of it is to follow the simple directions. If it comes to you to do something, just do it.  Doing what’s next, without a mental argument, is devotion to God. It’s a wonderful thing to just listen and obey, to listen and do. And if you follow the voice, you eventually realize that there’s not even a voice. There’s no voice, there’s only movement, you are the movement, and you just watch...What comes next is not your business...It’s exciting to  wait and watch and allow life to move...(me).  Byron Katie, A 1000 names for Joy I’m a little over a week back into my regular off the river life. Sitting in front of a morning campfire at home surrounded by anything a person could ever need.  Like a cool c...

Final day and reflections

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I feel funny today. Besides never feeling more tired, ever, I noticed I missed the river and  river lifestyle I got to immerse into for 12 days. and I miss you. I really felt we were sharing in something important. I felt people traveling with me and therefore a deep sense of connection with the human spirit and the natural spirit. So I feel a pang of something and I don’t know what it is but maybe we can still stay connected on a continued, evolving adventure. Heart open. Kindness.  We’re  all on a good journey always, don’t you think? I saw a lot of trees like this, it reminds me of how nature will reach for whatever it needs and is resilient in doing that. I think in the reaching it gets stronger. In the stretching there is expansion. This journey stretched.  About 20 years ago I went on my first solo kayak trip in the north Maine woods.  I was scouting the Penobscot River to lead a holistic canoe retreat down it soon after. It was supposed to be ...

Day 12 June 13

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Recovering from the Lisbon Falls portage. Had to dig in deep on that one. I am realizing I have only made two phone calls in 12 days. Both were calls for support. I felt the impulse to call people socially frequently and stopped. I wanted to really be in the experience. Not escape the solitude and immersion.  Consistently I have found very old trees along this intact river green belt. I love Ash trees and have never seen one this big.  I also appreciate  wild cherry trees and have a handful on the mountain where I live. None this big. Even though the diameter is not that impressive, it is for the wild cherry tree in Maine! The greatest teacher of mindfulness for me has been this lovely friend. Poison ivy is my teacher. Pay attention and take one mindful step at a time are it’s offerings. Or I will be crying.  Sunny beachy riverside breakfast waiting to happen. Oatmeal with seeds, nuts, coconut flakes and chopped apple.  Super p...