"The Adventurer’s Perspective"
--by Alpinista Hombre
Counting stars in a night sky is a pastime of analyst-types and over-zealous scientists, but to view a night sky with the widened eyes as an adventurer fills far beyond one's mind, but one's very soul. The everyday tourist is but an enemy to themselves, without knowing so. They travel from colony-to-colony, place-to-place, or region-to-region. Various stops are made to take a photograph of a distant natural feature, to shop a roadside shop, to indulge on a meal, or to simply "take a stretch." Does it ever cross the mind of an everyday tourist, visiting from afar, that there is much to gain on the horizon, much to experience down in that canyon, more to see with the naked eye from that summit, so much more to illuminate them just across that nearby river or stream? Does an everyday tourist feel the "call of the wild" or do they only notice how cold or wet it is "out there"?
Adventuring is such wherewith one takes-in their surrounding in entirety... co-existing with the elements, enchantment, risk, freedom, and our Creator in spirit. The actual depths of nature cannot be perceived in entirety, by us, in our current form. As any great adventurer passes-away into the hereafter, their glass is still only partially filled. After such an adventurer has wandered, climbed, traversed, scaled, and orienteered through the many wildernesses in their God-given life, they still managed to view and experience only but a glimpse of what Mother Nature holds in her endless bounds. Mortality simply limits us so. A question that may surface from such an inquiry may be "how can we, adventurers, experience all that we can in our lifetime?" Or perhaps, "how can we achieve and experience the greatest quality of experiences that nature has to offer?"
Sir Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further than certain other men, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." When we add the experience of others, as well as personalities, our wilderness adventures are deepened in their scope, even when our company is less than favorable. After all, growth does not come without lessons on the use of our freedoms. Accept your good experiences with the bad, and move-on to the next one. Wisdom does not just gather at our door. You have to seek it, adventure-to-adventure; and you illuminate more as you accept the good with the bad, knowing well that it was all for your good.
We must be prepared for tomorrow by accepting tomorrow's adventures today. Challenges have risks. With risks, and through challenges, we can have success, or better yet... Adventure. Helen Keller overcame great darkness in her life, with the use of only three of her five basic senses. How was it possible that she overcame such challenges? Well, for one, there must be other mediums of sensory... emotional, spiritual, and others. Helen later stated, from her experience, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."
How we affect others on a daily-basis should be an object of importance on all minds. Where there is a pessimist among the positive and optimistic, the negativity will add weight and tension to social interactions--of any kind. It is always a good idea to begin each day daring and challenging “you” to seek positivity in all things. Positivity will make you an instant leader of sorts, wherein your optimism will lighten the loads of others, relax minds, allow trust to build, develop honor, and so on. When adventuring in rough terrains and harsh climates, positivity will carry the souls of all to greater destinations, and everyone will share the success together. The philosopher Lao Tzu recorded one of his philosophies as such: "Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you; But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this ourselves.' "
The relationships we make in life can be, by our individual choice, stale or enchanting, progressive or damning, motivating or depressing, forgiving or unforgiving... the list goes on. Humans are social, by nature. Within each of us is an intense need to feel that we belong. In our adventures together, this is best demonstrated by teamwork, training, shared experiences, passing through successes and failures alike, sharing, assisting, lending a hand, and all the way to the source--thinking. Egotism and selfishness are diseases of healthy relationships, and it is up to us, individually, to think... to be self-aware enough to give service and consideration to others. Humility and diligent service to others are the "glue bond" of lasting teams and friendships.
We have entered a new age, a new era, wherein we may characterize adventuring by our great advances in outdoor equipment. We can see that technological advances in our equipment and clothing can render a society's perception of the mountains and wildernesses as "lower" or "easier" to conquer in many aspects. Or it could just be the beginning of more spiritual adventuring, where we wander, climb, traverse, scale, and orienteer the mountains and wildernesses with less equipment on our backs, more awareness of our surroundings, more experience in our souls, more courage in our hearts, and more vision in our eyes.
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