Day 3,995

Growth:

Time to start winding down for the night, big day of adventure and challenge ahead tomorrow.  What’s funny is that the goal tomorrow isn’t technically on my dream list, but the concept of it is very much in line with the type of person who would live my dream list.  

This is a well timed reminder for me that while the dream list itself is in many ways the gateway to living more intentionally, living the life it is meant to lead toward is so much more important than living the specific dream itself.  In many ways I’m reminded of the metaphor used by de Mello of the vehicle that takes you to the house is needed, but you don’t use it to enter the house itself. 

In which other times have I focused too tightly on the specific dream rather than the life the dream was meant to support?  How can I keep that dichotomy of needing a clear dream to use to get me moving, yet keeping the flexibility and awareness to shift as needed?

As I prepare to start working on my 2027 revision of my dream list this reminder couldn’t have been more well timed!

Appreciation:

In a similar vein to the section above, I’m grateful for the goal which led me to today’s day with Dominic.  With a goal of being fully present with Gavin during his last year at home I was reminded of both the importance of presence and the impermanence of all stages of life.  The time we have with loved ones is so limited and can slip by so quickly, I must remember to be intentional with my moments.

As a result of that lesson I remembered to be very intentional and parlayed that into an adventure to Canada with Dominic for a ridiculous hiking adventure.  There’s maybe a 50% chance of success in our goal for tomorrow (the 20+ mile, 4,500+’ hike of Sleeping Giant in Ontario in one go), but there’s a 100% chance of creating memories.  We’ve already had so much fun on the drive up, almost no screen time for either of us on the entire drive except for confirmation of hiking details.

The goal was presence with Gavin, but there’s true intent was to be intentionally present and to create more moments with loved ones.  Today that had nothing to do with Gavin and had everything to do with Dominic.  Again, I’m grateful for not focusing on checking a box, rather, living the life the box was meant to support.

Presence:

I absolutely LOVE the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the North Shore of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  The entire US shore of Lake Superior is spectacular.  That said, I was in for quite the shock this evening as we drove across the border into Canada.  Literally only miles before the border the entire topography somehow shifted into an even more majestic topography.  This entire area with its severe cliffs, verdant forests, lowland swamps and lakes, and continually undulating landscape are beyond anything I could have imagined around Lake Superior.  Dominic and I spent the last two hours of our drive in awe as we soaked up all the sights.

There is something about this area that feels so right, so much like home, like a bit of my soul has always been here, like it is returning to the place of its birth.  I know no other way to put it, my core of me is more in tune here, more grounded, than virtually anywhere else. 

For clarity, it’s not a desire to live here (visiting is definitely the right way for me), not a place I need to come to all the time (but I’ll likely be here a little more often), but something similar to and yet more intense than what I’ve always felt up in the UP.  A peace, a calm, at a visceral level.  A feeling of home, of rightness, like I’ve crossed a boundary into something that exists just outside of the plane of life.  Not the sense of awe and wonder of travel to places like Sequoia NP or Patagonia or Iceland, there is awe for sure, but more feeling like a deep exhale when walking into my home after being away for two weeks.

Thanks!!!