Ryan Van Lenning

Posts by Ryan Van Lenning:

“The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong. Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.” – David Whyte, Sweet Darkness

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.” -Rumi

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DEPART FOR THE GRAND ADVENTURE 6 years ago today was the first day of my 10-week wilderness trek. The start of walking alone nearly 500 miles through the Sierra mountain range, carrying everything I needed on my back. It remains one of the most thrilling, grueling, and rewarding experiences of my life. I had 1 bowl and 1 spoon, a couple changes of clothes, no soap, no shower, no keys, no inbox for the entire summer. I formed a deep relationship with mountains and rivers, and as importantly, with my self. I became familiar with my own inner terrain. It is a life-long lesson and reminder to start that grand adventure, whether that’s external or internal, or that big project or new direction your voices within have been whispering (or shouting!) about. For me, its the things we don’t do that we end up regretting. From my journal entry, May 2013: "At last I depart for the grand adventure. I love that feeling of getting on a train for a new chapter, the motion, the unknown, the novel sites and smells, the anticipation of adventure. Life. At 10,000 ft. I’m sitting on a marbled granite boulder atop a ridge separating three emerald lakes. All I hear is water flowing and trickling and birds chirping. Marmots play in the distance. It is Hot & sunny, yet snow rests on either side. On bouldering as a metaphor: sometimes your path is blocked...you only have to move over a little bit for a clear path through to appear. Sometimes the way up is the way down, and vice versa."
“Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” —Rumi
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