The Stretch

Curves and Reflection, River Mile 213

A raft trip in the Grand Canyon is a particularly intense experience, spawning powerful conversations.  One thought that made the rounds during the trip last week is what my friend and mentor Jerry Dodrill calls Fear vs. Danger.  My take is similar – I think there are two kinds of fear, the kind that we should flee and the kind that we should walk toward. Of course, the one type of fear is useful to help us avoid jumping in front of a moving train and the like.  As for the other kind, it’s the reason that we sometimes say “feel the fear and do it anyway.”

Heleborne Orchid, Matkatamiba Canyon

Everyone comes to the canyon with different skills and experience.  A stretch for me might not be the same as a reach for Jerry, a seasoned rock climber and adventurer.  Likewise, one friend descended into the canyon with essentially no camping experience at all.  For him, simple things like the bathroom arrangements and sleeping out were huge jumps.  That being said he did some genuinely scary stuff down there, much of which was optional.

In WritingDown the River, Linda Ellerbee says, “Our travels are not always the voyages of discovery we say we seek.  Often they are rituals of reassurance.  This was different.  This required one to take physical and emotional chances.”

It seems nearly impossible to be in this place without expanding our boundaries and if we’re paying attention we can generalize the experience to life on the outside.

A different take on sunrise over the Little Colorado River

I broadened my own horizons a bit as well.  Some combination of encouragement and being willing to accept help allowed me to climb on and into things I wouldn’t have attempted otherwise.  Some say that part of aging is a gradual mourning of the loss of physical ability.  It seems that silencing my ego enough to accept help is a big part of doing it gracefully.  I was working on that too.

Unfinished Business; Ancient Granaries at Nankoweap

Photographically I found myself in locations that I’d worked on before.  The challenges for me were finding fresh perspectives on some places while addressing unfinished business in others; another kind of stretch.

More images from the Canyon are on SkylineImages.net