These are some of the benefits of following one’s path.  The costs include letting go of attachments that hold us back, disappointing people who want us to be something else, letting go of what others think of us, facing our fear of the unknown and coping with confusion when it comes.  These costs are a natural part of becoming a mature human being.

We are beholden to no one.  However, we benefit everyone when we follow our soul’s path.  Our true obligation is to our hearts purpose.  We are most effective at helping others when our hearts are full.  We are beholden to everyone.

How do we find our soul’s path?  It seems that our paths are a work in progress.   Listen to your heart, it does not lie.  Pay attention to that which brings you feelings of well being.  Pray and connect with that which is divine.  Start small as one thing leads to the next.  Have courage.  Seek community that supports your highest potential.  Know that when a person reaches out with a pure heart, the rest of creation responds by reaching back.  Together a fulfilled purpose is manifested.

When you realize that you’ve gotten stuck somewhere, be easy with yourself.  Step forward on your path again and no matter how big or small, let go of that which is holding you back.

Smile!  Your heart and soul thanks you.  Sing through your words, your body language, your smile and your eyes.  Sing with your hair as the wind plays with you.  Let your heart be a channel for divine energy.  Carry that energy with you and give freely.

Do your laundry, do the maintenance on your things and pay your bills.  Your soul needs these vehicles to reach its potential.

The joy of wandering like this is in the rich experiences of meeting new people and places.  Waving to people and getting a full variety of responses is fun.  Feeling the wind, sun and rain on my skin is a real-time interaction with the earth.

When I can’t understand someone because my Spanish is limited, it does not seem to matter as our hearts and eyes are sharing the most important information.  I can usually tell what they are meaning by listening with all my senses.

There are of course, many challenges with journeying like this.  Coping with the anger and ill feelings of peoples and places can be difficult when feeling vulnerable in a foreign land.   There has been much physical discomfort:  the heat, the cold, rain, dirty hotel rooms, diarrhea, upset stomach and more.  Emotional challenges have been there too.  Confusion, homesickness, restlessness, and unfamiliarity have presented their challenges.

I’ve had time to listen to my heart and look back at my life.  Is all well?  Where do I want to head next?  What parts need to be let go of?  Am I being true to myself?  Am I being useful to those that I would help?  What new things do I want to do.  Are my relationships healthy?

I have gotten the answers to many of those questions and been given answers to questions I didn’t know I had.  I’ve been guided by spirit and been given many gifts and challenges.  I’ve been kept safe too, which I’m grateful for.

I walked for a while. I stood still and the sound of the river became louder as if it wanted me to visit it…so I did. I found some saplings that may one day grow into the large cotton wood trees. As I stood in a clearing surrounded by bushes and saplings, sky and moon, I listened to their voices.

The power of a place can be so healing. I hope to share this power with more people who might benefit from it. When I spend much time in these places of natural beauty and character, I become more. More connected, more alive, more myself.

May we all be blessed with a relationship with a place that nurtures and fills us. Happy New Year and Blessings to ALL.

This is the ancient human way of communicating with the elements and the spirits of nature.  It is a language born in our hearts.  To communicate with the earth is to return to the home of our ancestors, and to open a door to a humble and connected world view.  It is the birthright of every living being to communicate intimately with creation.

This solo kayak trip was a circumnavigation of Vinalhaven Island that is at the mouth of Penobscot Bay.  To get to Vinalhaven Island from Owl’s Head, (Rockland, Maine), requires a 6 mile crossing of Western Penobscot Bay.  This crossing has a large fetch of water that is exposed to the open ocean and all her winds and tides.   It is an act of faith in the ocean and one’s self to commit to such a crossing alone.

As I approached the final jut of land before the crossing, two eagles flew in front of me and spiraled together.  They rose and rose until they were faint specs in the grey sky and then disappeared from view altogether.  This eagle dance was heartening encouragement, so I began the crossing.  The outgoing tide, combined with an incoming breeze created two foot seas that were fairly steep.

When the seas began to rise even more, I again sang to the ocean.  It was a song of gratitude and a spirit song of my soul.  Within seconds of beginning my song, a seal arrived and looked at me with its dark, shiny and opaque eyes.  I don’t believe it had ever been sung to before, and it swam with me for quite some time.  It was very nice to have the company.  At the same time, the ocean calmed and allowed me safe passage to Vinalhaven Island.

Later, while exploring the shore line of the wilderness campsite that I stayed at, I found an image in the granite that took my breath away.  It was an image of a woman’s body with a falcon’s head.  The image was made up of dark stone that stood out in contrast to the lighter colored granite surrounding it.  My new friend in the rock and I sat for a long time and watched the sunset on the rocky Maine coast.

This is the precious way life can be for us.  The Earth offers us gifts of connection, listening, encouragement, nurturing, nourishment, vision, guidance, love and meaning.  We are a vital part of creation.

Take the time to listen and interact with nature and you will be tremendously blessed.

The 2009 Mountain Spirit Journeys Expedition to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was a beautiful experience.  The Allagash had a profound impact on all of us.  We left with a desire for more time with this place.

We had a window of perfect weather, which was very welcome.  The first day we encountered some wind from an offshore hurricane, but after that we had calm conditions.  The day after the trip, another hurricane brought a deluge of rain.

The lakes region of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is a great open expanse of water that seems to breathe a magical life into the scene.  As we paddled along, moose were often seen on the shores eating the underwater vegetation.  Osprey, great blue herons and ducks went about their business in a regular kind of way.  These creatures get to live in a paradise that is precious in todays human sculpted world.  We relished the pristine cleanliness and raw beauty.

Each night we ate gourmet meals cooked in traditional ways over a camp fire.  Cooking over a fire takes a bit more time and work, but is very rewarding.  The generations of people who have passed over this waterway include the Wabnaki tribes, the lumberjacks, hunters and fishermen and the modern recreational travelers.  Even Thoreau passed through here.  Most of these travelers have used camp fires for cooking, so our doing so provided a continuity to this tradition.

The campsites are beautifully maintained, each one having a large hand built picnic table, a fire pit set up for cooking, a pole over the table to hang a tarp and an outhouse toilet.
After the lakes gather their water they feed the Allagash River which travels to meet the St. John River.  The river ranges from quick water in most locations to riffles, rips and rapids (up to class II whitewater).  The whitewater is exciting, but not dangerous.  We all made it through keeping our boats upright, though we each had personal encounters with a stray underwater rock or two.

Everybody on the trip has thought about returning to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.  In 2010, Mountain Spirit Journeys will offer several trips to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway as well as the St. John River and other waterways.  Look for our 2010 expedition calendar which will be coming out this fall.

To view more pictures, use the link below to access one of the participants online photo album:

http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t229/joarch/Allagash%202009/?albumview=slideshow
May your soul fill up to the brim with the joy of life and may you find infinite ways of creatively expressing your gratitude.

Blessings,   Jamal Lee-Elkin

The first day I paddled through Long Lake and then lined the canoe around an old dam ( Long Lake dam).  It looks runnable and some people make it through, but there are metal spikes in the water which have been known to shred boats.  I opted to line it.

Then I continued down river to Round Pond.  Before entering Round Pond, I saw an American Elm on the left.  What a beautiful tree this was, and how lucky we are to have this lone survivor with us after the death of most of its species.  Just after entering Round Pond, the wind picked up and whipped the lake into 2 foot seas in a matter of minutes.  I’ve never seen a lake grow chop and seas so fast.  The wind pushed me straight to the Squirrel Cove in minutes, though it was a little scary in the big water.  I got there around 2:30 or 3 PM.

Squirrel Cove and Round Pond were very beautiful with lots of cedar trees.  I saw an eagle sitting on a tree.  I found a tree that was overhanging the water, and I sat on it for a long time and watched the heavy waves roll in to the shore.

The second day started paddling by 6:30.  I had a heavy head wind for much of this day, which whipped up white caps on the river.  I found that the wind would turn the boat quickly and I had to fight hard to keep the boat from wind cocking.  Despite the head wind, the current kept me moving along.

I paddled to Michaud Farms ranger station and signed in.  Then I paddled to The Allagash Falls for the Portage.  Carrying the canoe over the portage was painful and I had to stop three times and rest my shoulders.  The main problem was the pain from the yoke digging into my neck/shoulders.  Allagash Falls were beautiful.  The Falls were very loud and were dropping a lot of water.    It was hard to imagine the log drivers of old, picking apart log jams that occurred in these falls.

I paddled to the Big Brook East  and was there around 2 or 2:30 pm.   I chose the East campsite so that I’d have plenty of sun during the evening.  I wanted to stay here because I could get to town relatively early the next day and drive home.  There is a nice stream on Big Brook East and I used my Steripen UV light to purify some water. It was very yummy.  I hung out in the sun and read the Gil Gilpatrick Allagash History book during the evening.

That night I heard some splashing sounds that were repeated every so often.  I surmised that it was a moose that was feeding.  Every so often it would shake off and I could hear its heavy fur flapping.  Then I fell asleep and dreamed of the moose…I kept it away from my hammock with a cantaloupe that I waved at it.

The next morning I was on the river at 5:30.  There was fog on the river and it was cold.  I found that my hands and feet got cold, though the rest of me was dry.  The fog made the small rips challenging to paddle through.   It took 3 hours to get to town and the take out.  I was at the car by 8:30.  I had a meal at a Diner, loaded the vehicle and was on my way.  I left by 10 am and was home by 6:30.

I didn’t want to leave and when I got home, I couldn’t stop thinking of the waterway and wanting to be up there on it.  Joan and I talked about buying some land and building a camp up there.  I think that it would be nice to have a place to start and end trips.  We’ll see!

So I’m pretty settled in now and I’m planning next the 2010 trips to the North Maine Woods.  I’m planning a trip to the St. John River.  It has more white water and is a little longer than the Allagash.  The whitewater is mostly class I and II and there are a two class III rapids.  This river saves the hardest water for last which is good for building up experience before running the class III.  Of course I’m also planning another Allagash trip.

Blessings,  Jamal Lee-Elkin

The mountain is beginning it’s spring time thaw, the river is flowing larger, the snow is dipping, and the ice is falling off of the rocks. My mother will take her annual trip to Agiocochook (Native name of Mt. Washington that means Mother Goddess of the Storm) and sled down screaming and hollering!

Close to our house, there is a nesting hawk who has been sending out it’s shrill cries in the morning. Mud season has taken a hold of our 1/2 mile driveway and we are in the spring ritual of mud boots and minimizing the driving up the road. We’re getting ready to cut firewood for next winter, and are having thoughts about planting the garden…though much smaller this year. In another month the may flowers will bloom and I’ll go out looking for them and their intoxicating smell.

Spring is a somewhat aggressive time as the buds shatter their hard capsules, as the land creaks and groans in it’s bones after a winter of being locked in the same position. This spring energy can come into our lives as well, a force that is transformative and relieving though initially painful. I find myself growing again, choosing life again, doing my work, and affirming my life’s direction.

Jamal

Love is a spiral that encapsulates us. It journeys deep into our cells and explodes into all that is.

Honesty is the emergence of the self into the growing fields. Integrity is honesty in the presence of awareness. Integration is walking your truths for all to see.

Imagine asking a wild animal if it is fully integrated. We too can unleash the wilderness upon our domesticated fear. And let the fear heal into an ever arching and rising love.

Jamal