Tomorrow I will be here:
Picture it – 11 women, 5 canoes, 3 lakes, 2 portages, 5 tents, 1 remote campsite on the edge of the lake, 0 roads, 0 flush toilets, 0 electronic gadgets, 1 garden trowel to dig temporary toilets in the woods, and dozens of great conversations.
This wanderer’s heart is doing a little happy dance just thinking about it.
I have been very fortunate this summer to be able to thoroughly embrace my inner wanderer. Not that I’ve gone on any grand, expensive adventures, but with a trip to Columbus, a week at the lake, a weekend at the Folk Festival, a few days on a canoe trip, three days of walking with three other wonderful women coming up next month, and lots and lots of walking to prepare for my 100 km. walk, I have definitely fit the definition of Happy Wanderer.
Some of my favourite writing this summer has been the stuff I write for A Path for Wanderers and Edge-walkers. The piece I’m preparing to release today is about how wandering silences our logical left brains and gives our creative right brains space to play and imagine. My right brain will be having a hey-day on this canoe trip, and I just KNOW that I’ll come home with lots of creative ideas.
I love that several of the people who are receiving the weekly emails for A Path for Wanderers & Edge-walkers have written to say “Oh my GOSH! How uncanny your timing is! Just when I was wrestling with this issue, your email showed up and helped me find clarity.” There’s something special happening with that little e-course, and I love being a conduit for it. People are learning to embrace the fact that they love to wander and can often be found at the edge of the circle checking out the “road less travelled.”
Just for fun, I’d like to offer one of you a free subscription to the 12 emails (that culminates in an e-book compilation of all of them) that include my wandering wisdom and the wisdom of 12 other wonderful wanderers I interviewed.
To enter the draw for one free subscription (worth $25), either leave a comment about where your wandering feet are taking you this summer, or post a link to this on Twitter or Facebook. (If you’re canoeing, I suppose it’s where your arms are taking you rather than your feet. 🙂
So tell me… how are you feeding your wandering heart? Walks or bike rides through your own neighbourhood, camping trips, journeys to other countries… what’s your unique brand of wandering?
To inspire you, here’s a short slide-show of last year’s canoe trip.
I am wandering up to Vermont so that I can visit and wander up mountains, down rivers and across lakes with my daughters. I usually wander around outside, closer to home but this is extra special wandering because it is with my girls.
I like to wander the neighbourhood and trailways near my home with my children; I recently wandered around the southern Georgian Bay area on a family vacation; and today I am wandering around the taste of the Danforth in Toronto with my Mom.
Heather, I’ve been enjoying your website SO much I feel like I’m stalking you! Or some kind of POSITIVE version of stalking! Your writing is so soulful and inviting and embracing. Thank you SO much for your generosity! I’ve especially enjoyed going back and looking at older posts of what you were experiencing as you left your job and birthed you NEXT. I’m in that same process right now!
I like to WANDER in my own journal, picking up threads of ideas across time and linking them. In the concrete world, I’ll be wandering with my husband and two kids in British Columbia next week, camping and hanging out.
Thanks for asking!
Alissa
I am so happy I found your website. My feet have been wandering through my inner landscape. I have come through the forest and have stumbled onto the most delicious clearing. I relish the warm sun on my face and smile as I know, soon, I will once again enter the forest. Only this time I will be filled with eager anticipation for the treasures I’ll surely find.
When I stumble, or get lost, or even find a treasure, I dip into my artwork to express all that I am.
Namaste,
Debbie