I’m taking a little vacation

George Lake, Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario

http://friendsofkillarneypark.ca/photogallery/displayimage.php?album=random

The six-hour drive was followed by a 2 km kayak trip to my own little campsite. A strong white quartizite cliff dappled with black basalt was rimmed by wispy white pines. After quickly setting up camp, hanging the food from a tree (bears, raccoons etc.)…then what?! I set up my camp chair half-way up the cliff, finished the novel I’d brought (“Lovely Bones”, a nice take on “make-love not war”)…and then entered a timeless state.

It took about a day to shake off the feeling of “I’ve gotta..!” or “what now…?” or “you need…”. I wanted to leave doing behind. When I walked up the rocky, leaf-covered slope, I let myself do it slowly and carefully, with no mind on where I’d stop. When I meditated, I let myself change it, focus on some other aspect of it, not get caught on where it was going. I stopped eating (well, I ate 3X in the 3 days I was at the camp) because it just seemed like another thing to schedule me, keep me pinned against the flow.

I spent much time just lying in my tent, listening to the rain, the bird song (check out the link to hear the eerie loon calls that echoed through the night), becoming aware of the shape and energy of feelings in me, allowing myself to drift into dreams and then shape those dreams instead of just follow them, then drift back into the feelings and the feelings about those feelings. No goal of becoming better or deeper or clearer – just experiencing me sweet me.

By the third day, I was pretty quiet inside. I then started thinking about people, and could get a much clearer sense of how I was with them. Found some powerful responses I have that wall me off. Again, I didn’t try to change them or even fight deeply into them, but was respectful of those feelings, those energetic patterns, and will see where I go with them. I am so happy to be aware of them.

I had some interesting animal encounters. One night as I kayaked in the bay outside my camp (the bay shown in the photo below) as the stars came out, a beaver swam criss-crosses around me, occasionally thwacking its tail. The next day, a nice warm and sunny day, as I ran the kayak hard into the beach, before getting out into the water I noticed a water-snake coiled up and sunning itself in the water, not 20 cm from where I landed the boat! I needed to step out where it was, and it begrudging moved, flicking its tongue rapidly, before suddenly arcing under my boat. Another night at sunset I was doing ocean breathing, eyes closed, when I heard a slight noise and..a cat? no…a raccoon! was 1.5 meters away, slowly walking toward me! I was surprised and quietly said “whow!” and it looked, then walked quietly away.

On my last day the blackflies (the size of gnats) were intense, beating constantly against the face-netting of my bugjacket. Happily, I didn’t get caught up in that drama, and tuned into the slower cycles of the deep water below and the hard quartzie hills.

So nice to not strive, and just be.

loon calls: click on wail and yodel

Hi James,

The amount of space available to “Add Link” and “Insert Image” are not long enough to insert many internet addresses. For example, with the photo I tried to insert, the intenet address “http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=si&img=344” was one digit too long. This had also happened when Michael had given an address for photos of a trip he had to Scotland.

Is it possible to lengthen the amount of space available?

thanks,
Chris