If you know me well, you’ll know I don’t like change. I can’t help it…it’s always been in my nature to hang on to people, places, things, thoughts – out of fear of the unknown.

I bet you’ve felt the same fear yourself…change is unsettling while certainty is comfortable.

I’m really really good at getting comfortable and it took me a long time to recognize that about myself. It wasn’t until my mom passed away when I was 21 that change started seeking me out.

Just when I would get comfortable with a new reality or a new location or job or group of people, everything would change and leave me whiplashed.

Hindsight being 20/20, all that change that happened to me was one giant lesson in how to get comfortable with change itself! I learned the importance of positivity.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it”

Charles R. Swindoll

But then, I learned an advanced lesson in change: sometimes I could guide it myself.

When I quit my job and moved to my cabin in Minnesota, that was the very first time I had caused change in my own life, solely directed by my heart. It felt like some unknown force was nudging me towards it, encouraging me to do it on my own this time, to take control because, either way, the tectonic plates of my life were shifting once again.

I’ll tell you, that was the single most empowering decision I’ve made in my entire life.

Rather than guiding my choice by what I could lose, I was following my hope for abundant joy and adventure, which is exactly what I received.

In 2019 it seems that, as a society, we’ve developed a bit of a scarcity mentality. We want to feel safe. We want to feel secure. We don’t want to experience change or take as many risks. We always want more because what if there isn’t enough? What if we aren’t enough?

It’s an honest mindset. Why do you think I got a degree in Engineering? I wanted a secure future…to mitigate uncertainty.

Unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at it, there’s no way to buck uncertainty.

Which brings me to my point! (finally.)

This is a blog about outdoor experience so what does this stuff about change have to do with life in the woods?

Everything!

Over the past six months, I’ve seen autumn give way to winter and winter begin to thaw into spring. I’ve witnessed the snowshoe hares turn white and the moose shed their antlers.

We’ve crossed the river in a canoe with paddles and ice axes and later with snowshoes. We welcomed the Whiskey Jacks in the fall and soon we’ll wish them safe travels north for the summer.

In the remote wilderness, you can intimately feel the seasons.

“They change and we have to change with ’em. Stirs us up. I’m more and more convinced the reason so many people can’t stand to live away from town is because they try to live apart from the weather.”

Adrian Hoover

Living mostly off grid, we have no choice to live apart from the weather. We work with it, embrace it, and respect it.

Of course, I realized the changes in the weather and wildlife but it wasn’t until the first break in winter came last week that I could translate it into my own life.

It was almost 40 degrees in Grand Marais and the ice in the harbor had broken up into big pancake sheets. Everything was different. The breeze had moisture that the stark winter could never afford. The sounds were filled with seagulls chatting and ice shifting.

I was sad…I didn’t want my cozy winter wonderland to leave! I didn’t want my evening movies with dad or our morning scrambled eggs and toast by the fire to come to an end.

That’s when I realized, the change from winter to spring isn’t about what we’re losing. It’s all about what’s around the corner, up ahead, around the river bend!

The memories we’ve made this winter are forever cemented in my heart but now there’s opportunity for more!

Mother nature has so much to teach us if we’re willing to listen and apply. I’m here to share with you the little nugget of wisdom I have gleamed from her this spring:

The lesson here is that uncertainty is certain. Change is coming!

We can either let change happen and feel like we’ve lost something or we can plow forward, directed by our heart, expecting abundance while being grateful for the cards we’ve been dealt.

I can promise there will be rough weather ahead. There’s so much in life that’s out of our control. But sometimes, you can beat change to the punch…you can make a leap for yourself and embrace whatever happens next, knowing that you’re intentionally living your life.

Happy Trails,