Lady Patagonia: My Teacher
14 Febrero 2018---Rio Baker, Patagonia, Chilena
"The last week or so has been potent--beautiful. I feel like I use the term "potent" a lot but I think it is the best word to describe life these days. Potent: full, but not just busy-- full of important lessons, moments, people and experiences. I want to remember-- record them all, but there are not enough hours in my mornings or evenings. What crosses my mind is my trip down the Carretera Austral with Syver, chats and laughs with Spenser, doing the portage with him too-- carrying that big raft frame! My mind glows with realizations and honesties. I like solo time but not too much. I miss my friends. I love talking, really talking, with people. The backcountry is where I feel the most raw-- I see myself and the world around me more clearly. I see how much I stress and overanalyze about Beka. I see my anxiety at never feeling home. I see that I am far stronger than I think I am. I see Reed is kind, thoughtful and imperfect. I see that Jorgie has little patience or filter at times yet a deep, beautiful curiosity for life. I see that I crave knowledge of the Earth. I long to know a place like a watercolor I painted myself. I find joy in knowing the birds and the plants-- which berries you can eat, which you cannot. I love the river and the wind in my ears. I love wandering the cow trails and tumbling upon newness with every turn.
I have been thinking how this is the perfect place to learn. All wisdom can be found here. If you want to be a scientist, practice observation. If you want to be a writer, tell me about the birds and the rocks and the way the sunlight hits your eyelashes in the afternoon sun. If you want to be a doctor, learn the plants. Heal your adventure-mates. Give them cola de caballo tea for their blood and keep their wounds clean and dry from the river. But most of all, if you want to learn to just be, to keep your center when all about you are losing theirs-- Patagonia, these rivers, the glowing sun and soaring wind, can teach you all you must know. This is the blue country for me. The place where I have found my guru and unlocked the floodgates to becoming who I am. There is no better classroom that these cow trails along the river or the tormenta that rages at night."
