New Blog: Hot Off the Grid

Check out my new "Hot Off the Grid" blog within a blog and join me in my discoveries, challenges, joys and adventures of living off the grid! Here's to adventures wherever they may lead!

P.S. Many thanks to everyone for your encouragement and well wishes :)

Out of the Comfort Zone

Over the past year, I've been going through my own personal growth and evolution, working on some core issues which involves unlearning old habits and relearning new ones. There never is a transition from one to the other without a learning curve and a struggle to let go of one in order to grasp the other.

I've nearly always associated that struggle to mean I was doing something wrong or I was outright failing.

Recently it hit me: If the only way to grow/change/heal/evolve is to step outside our comfort zone, then struggling and/or being uncomfortable is a sign of success, NOT of failure!

As Roz Savage so keenly observed during her solo rowing adventure across the Atlantic Ocean, "Stepping outside your comfort zone is supposed to feel uncomfortable because we’re in new and unfamiliar territory. Being uncomfortable is a sign of success, NOT of failure! So if we are uncomfortably outside our comfort zones, then than means we are growing!!! And THAT is cause for celebration!" (modified from a passage in Roz Savage's "Rowing the Atlantic").

As many people, I've been programmed to think that if I'm struggling, then I'm failing. Struggling is a sign I am exerting great effort and exercising new muscles, whether physically or emotionally or mentally.

Consider this: A caterpillar struggles against his self-created & self-imposed cocoon. Only by struggling does he gain the strength to become a butterfly. He NEEDS the time alone to create, to be, to grow. This creation is a delicate process hidden from view. We aren't privy to the mystery. Even further, we can't interfere, otherwise we will stunt or inhibit the butterfly's growth.

Likewise with the butterfly, we ought to treat our own (as well as each other's) growth process with patience and respect. After all: Life is a journey, not a destination!

It's hard to accept that struggle is good. It's hard not to swoop in and try to provide a buffer for the pain, our own as well as our loved ones.

Only by surrendering & not resisting, is there life. Only through struggle and pain is there birth -- ask every baby who's ever been born.

The key is not to focus on or be intimidated by the struggle. That brings suffering. In the words of May Sarton, "Without darkness, nothing comes to birth; as without light, nothing flowers". ~ Mary Sarton

Artist Andy Goldsworthy offers this poignant reminder, "The real work is the change".

Here's to joy in the journey and to adventures, wherever they may lead...

Poverty Island Bound!

Well the weekend weather forecast is looking picture perfect for this time of year, so I'm making another attempt at kayaking to Poverty & Summer Islands!

In 2005, my friend Chuck "Pathfinder" Hayden of Fortune Bay Expedition Team placed a geocache on Poverty Island. Since no one has logged the cache since 2007, I'm making a run for his hidden treasure! Check out details of his geocache here.

Poverty Island Expedition Plan

Sat, Sept 25:

• Launch from Fairport (mainland), first destination Summer Island (2.39 miles). 
• Paddle along shoreline of Summer Island (approx 3.2 miles) 
• Set course for Poverty Island (1.04 miles).
• Set up camp at Poverty Island.

Sun, Sept 26:

• Explore Poverty Island.
• Locate Chuck's cache!
• Set course for Summer Island.
• Set course and land at Fairport (mainland).

Close-up. Map credit: Chuck Hayden

Overall view.

These maps will give you an idea of my route (click map for larger version), the location of Poverty Island and Chuck’s cache...both are located about 7 miles offshore from Garden Peninsula (SE of Escanaba) in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.

Join me on my Poverty Island voyage by visiting my new page, "My Adventures"! My Adventure page includes interactive live SPOT tracking so that you can track my progress which is updated automatically every 10 minutes. (There is also a link on the page that will allow you to see a larger map.)

Please note: The tracks currently on the page reflect my beta testing the system tonight in order to provide data on the map so you can get an idea of how it works. Once I embark for Poverty Island (or any future expeditions), the map will update accordingly.

Here's to adventures wherever they may lead!