The Wilderness Experience

Spiritual resource to share: horizon-opening experiences

Today, I want to talk about the wilderness experience and how outright refreshing it can be.

I have had numerous wilderness experiences, both literally and figuratively. (You have had these too, as you will recognize further on down the blog).

My literal wilderness experiences have included those moments on mountains, whitewater rivers or lakes in the middle of nowhere. Experiencing the stillness and beauty of the northern lights, howling winds at high altitudes and whitewater stair cases have shaped me and have strengthened and inspired me.

There are always two sub-types of experiences in a wilderness experience and MBEddy captures them perfectly in her definition of Wilderness:

WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.

There is the first experience of loneliness, doubt or darkness. You feel separated from good, you don't believe you an accomplish anything, or the absence of light feels a little more real than light itself.

But, seeing through that experience, there is then this second experience of spontaneity - even playfulness with the universe! The material, limited sense of life falls away to reveal startling beauty, or a purifying rush of clean - of new beginnings and fresh starts, or an altitude of thought that makes all of the tediousness of human strife look, well, tedious and small and inconsequential in the light of the magnaminous nature of creation and its Creator.

This has been played out in my life like so:

• Doubting my ability to run a whitewater rapid in a kayak, and then doing it, resulted in the thrill of dominon over fear and humble awe of the ability to play with a power so beautiful.
• Being fearful of an impending storm on a mountaintop, but then overcoming that morphed into being a part of an amazing rescue effort that resulted in everyone's safety, and increased camraderie and joy!
• Feeling very isolated from civilation and from our base camp while paddling across a huge lake with my husband when strong winds came down on us against the direction we needed to take. We persisted, shouted out enouragement to each other, and kept going, not letting up one second lest we lose more ground as we made our way, inch by inch to our base camp across the wide lake. And we did it! We were exhausted, happy ...and safe.

But it has also played out for me in my more unconventional wilderness experiences, where I felt I was alone, abandoned or too down on myself: like when I was alone in a foreign country for the first time, or starting a new job, struggling with a persistent challenge, or recovering after a traumatic situation.

In each of these experiences, I had to walk through that illusionary wall of self-doubt, fear, and loneliness to see that there is an answer. Some "great fact of existence" was there reminding me that good is not helpless, that God's ideas cannot exist alone or that there are infinite resources that God has with which to bless mankind.

So what does this mean for you all? You probably recognize a wilderness experience or two that you yourself have encountered. Or maybe you are in right now. I hope you can take heart, that the material, limited sense of things - or those suggestions that you are separated from good - are not based on God's reality. These things have a short shelf-life. They will fall away.

Open yourself up to the spontaneity of God's infinite goodness. Start with one fact based on God's love, goodness and abundance. Opening that door will lead you into blessings, healing and peace. And your wilderness experience will "blossom like the rose!*"

Some fav quotes to leave you with:

* The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. -Isaiah 35

As long as there are young people with the light of adventure in their eyes, or a touch of wildness in their souls, rapids will be run. -Sigurd Olson

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. -John Muir

Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. -John Muir





Top photo by Gabe Korinek - copyright 2006

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.