This past July, I was in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.  It is a beautiful and serene place where I experienced a willingness, wildlife and wilderness  and it was a trip of conscious choice from “entry to exit”.  When the straps on our food-pack broke on the first portage, we (and when I say we, I mean Greg) modified the pack so we could keep going.  When my shoe broke 7 days into the wilderness (with 5 more days til we exited) we simply just modified it and kept going.  It was all conscious choice. 

It reminds me of 2 years ago when two friends of ours enjoyed paddling 2 days of our 11 day trip with us.  As they exited the Boundary Waters, they accidentally took our tent poles.  It was another opportunity to modify and keep going.  My point is, we didn’t let stuff like that stop us because we knew exactly where we wanted to be which is out in the wilderness where our hearts were.  It’s there that we are at perfect peace.  Yes, it was a physically demanding trip AND I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  The lush green islands, the two young bucks testing their “buck snort” abilities at us and the pristine water which cooled us, held us and let us quench our thirst.

Several years ago, a fire raged through a portion of the Boundary Waters and it left a mark on the wilderness that I hadn’t seen before.  The scenery and islands towards the end of our trip were no longer lush and green, they were charred and colorless.  On the second to the last day, Greg and I looked for a campsite and the only one we could find without crossing a large body of VERY WAVEY water was on an island in this desolate place.  It had no shade, no protection and no appeal.  It didn’t fit within where we wanted to be…so…co-actively, we tapped into our strength and abilities and our strong desire of knowing what we wanted (serene, beauty, peace, comfort) and we crossed the VERY WAVEY large body of water.  Our canoe carried us across and even though we took waves over the side of the canoe, we made it. 

This experience is a lot like the choices we make in life.  We (you, me, the rest of the world) could stay on the island of desolation where there is fear, anxiety, no protection, not where we want to be, nothing to nourish us…OR we could move to the island of possibilities, where there is freedom, strength, more opportunities, beauty and a knowingness of our accomplishments. 

Which would you choose?

Summer 2011 has been full of unwanted storms here in Minnesota.  There was the Minneapolis tornado in May, the strait-line wind damage and destruction over the 4th of July weekend in Stark/Harris/Cambridge areas (among everything in it’s path before and after these cities and the damage that seemingly occurred up in North Branch as I am writing this blog. Sheesh!  Mother nature seems to be shaking her “refining process groove thing”.  I could “literally” write about the warning, the clean-up and the re-build; however, I’m choosing a different angle. 

When storms literally occur, they show up on radar.  If they get bad enough, we get a warning.  If they get even worse, a trained person (meteorologist) pops on the television and reiterates the warning, tells us the track and says to take cover.  Did you know the same holds true for storms in our lives?  You know, the personal kind that we know keep occuring but don’t want to talk about?  (Just making sure you are on the same storm track as I am).  The warnings may be a little harder to recognize (gut feeling, heart racing, things not going the way you think they should, all of your technology breaking down at the same time, etc).  Regardless, you do have the ability to recognize the warning and can do something with it. 

Click here http://freedominforgiveness.eventbrite.com/ to learn how to get 2 full days of un-interupted YOU time for any clean-up and re-build that needs to occur in your life.  Your freedom from the storm awaits.