Category Archives: Go
The Wolf’s Eyelash
If you don’t go out in the woods, nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.
”Don’t go out into the woods, don’t go out,” they said.
”Why not? Why should I not go out into the woods tonight?” she asked.
”A big wolf lived there who eats humans such as you. Don’t go out in the woods, don’t go out. We mean it.”
Naturally, she went out. She went out into the woods anyway, and of course she met the wolf, just as they had warned her.
”See, we told you,” they crowed.
”This is my life, not a fairy tale, you dolts,” she said. “I have to go to the woods, and I have to meet the wolf, or else my life will never begin.”
But the wolf she encountered was in a trap, in a trap this wolf’s leg was in.
”Help me, oh help me!” he cried, “and I shall reward you justly.” For this is the way of the wolves in tales of this kind.
”How do I know you won’t harm me?” she asked–it was her job to ask questions. “How do I know you will not kill me and leave me lying in my bones?”
”Wrong question,” said the wolf. “You’ll just have to take my word for it.” And the wolf began to cry and wail once again and more.
“Oh, aieee! Aieeee! Aieeee!
There’s only one question
worth asking fair maiden,
wooooooooor
aieeeee th’
soooooooool?”
“Oh you wolf, I will take a chance. Alright here!” And she sprang the trap and the wolf drew out its paw and this she bound with herbs and grasses.
”Ah, thank you kind maiden, thank you,” sighed the wolf. And because she had read too many of the wrong kind of tales, she cried, “Go ahead and kill me now, and let us get this over with.”
But no, this did not come to pass. Instead this wolf put his paw upon her arm.
”I’m a wolf from another time and place,” he said. And plucking a lash from his eye, gave it to her and said, “Use this to be wise. From now on you will know who is good and not so good; just look through my eyes and you will see clearly.
For letting me live
I bid you live
in a manner as never before.
Remember, there’s only one question
worth asking fair maiden,
wooooooooor
aieeeee th’
soooooooool?”
And so she went back to he village
happy to still have her life.
And this time as they said,
“Just stay here and be my bride,”
or “Do as I tell you,”
or “Say as I want you to say,
and remain as unwritten upon
as the day you came,”
she held up the wolf’s eyelash
and peered through
and saw their motives
as she had not seen them before.
And the next time
the butcher weighed the meat
she looked through her wolf’s eyelash
and saw that he weighed his thumb too.
And she looked at her suitor
who said “I am so good for you,”
and she saw that her suitor
was so good for exactly nothing.
And in this way and more,
she was saved,
from not all,
but from many,
misfortunes.
But more so, in the new seeing, not only did she see the sly and cruel, she began to grown immense in heart, for she looked at each person and weighed them anew through this gift from the wolf she had rescued.
And she saw those who were truly kind
and went near to them,
she found her mate
and stayed all the days of her life,
she discerned the brave
and came close to them,
she apprehended the faithful
and joined with them,
she saw bewilderment under anger
and hastened to soothe it,
she saw love in the eyes of the shy
and reached out to them,
she saw suffering in the stiff-lipped
and courted their laughter,
she saw need in the man with no words
and spoke for him,
she saw faith deep in the woman
who said she had none
and rekindled hers from her own.
She saw all things
with her lash of the wolf,
all things true,
and all things false,
all things turning against life
and all things turning towards life,
all things seen only
through the eyes of that
which weighs the heart with heart,
and not with the mind alone.
This is how she learned that it is true what they say, that the wolf is the wisest of all. If you listen closely, the wolf in its howling is always asking the most important question—not where is the next food, not where is the next fight, not where is the next dance?—
but the most important question
in order to see into and behind,
to weigh the value of all that lives,
wooooooooor
aieeeee th’
soooooooool?
wooooooooor
aieeeee th’
soooooooool?
Where is the soul?
Where is the soul?
Go out into the woods, go out. If you don’t go out into the woods, nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.
Go out into the woods,
go out.
Go out into the woods,
go out.
Go out into the woods,
go out.
Excerpted from “The Wolf’s Eyelash,” original prose poem by C.P. Estés, copyright 1970 from Rowing Songs for the Night Sea Journey, Contemporary Chants.
Ski: Big Bear & Snow Summit
In honor of the weekend’s storm and the awesome powder that awaits us on Tuesday… here’s to some good old SoCal skiing!
Dean Potter
The Man Who Can Fly
By Brett Israel {via OurAmazingPlanet}
Dean Potter, the star of the National Geographic Channel’s new show, “The Man Who Can Fly,” is not only a world-famous wingsuit pilot, but he’s one of the world’s most renowned rock climbers.
Potter was the first person to free solo climb the main face of Yosemite National Park ‘s El Capitan. That’s 3,000 feet (900 meters) straight up. Without a rope.
In his one-hour special currently airing on the National Geographic Channel, Potter along with his small inner circle attempt the first team free climb of western Canada’s Mount Bute … so Potter can then BASE jump off the top. BASE jumpers leap off structures, including buildings, antennas, bridge spans and cliffs, and glide down using parachutes.
OurAmazingPlanet caught up with Potter over the phone to get the scoop on his first flight, how being a climber and flier is a terrifying combination, and what keeps him hooked on heights.
OurAmazingPlanet: Can you tell us what got you into wingsuit jumping?
Dean Potter: I think everybody has a dream of flying at least once in their life. For me, it’s been over and over a recurring dream. It’s mostly that. That desire to be as free as the birds, to be unhindered. I started off as — and am still — a free solo climber. So being in the air is a huge fear of mine. So there’s a combination of going toward my fear as well as being fascinated with the air.
OAP: Do you remember your first jump?
DP: Absolutely. It was out of an airplane in Colorado, and I was taking my advance freefall course, doing my level 1 jump. My heart was racing. Like I said, I have a lot of fear with falling, so I panicked. Then I let go of the door of the airplane and kind of panicked the entire way. But after a few jumps I grew more calm, realized what was going on, and I think that was the key. The more calm I got, the more relaxed I was, the more I was able to feel the air and actually recognize it as an element and something I can move with.
OAP: When you’re at such great heights, you have a view of the Earth that most people will never see. Are you able to enjoy the view?
DP: I absolutely am able to take in the beauty, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s not like an adrenaline sport. It’s just a very calm feeling. My senses peak and I take in way more than in normal reality.
OAP: A wingsuit pilot recently crashed during an accident that was blamed on a gust of wind. How much do you study and prepare for the weather?
DP: Well, I’m a pretty wild guy and I live pretty close to nature — I’ve often lived in caves or on the edge of cliffs or in forests — so it’s just second nature for me to tap into the movings of the weather and the world. I have a strong feeling for it, and I think us as humans perceive all of that — the pressure change and the moon and the wind and whether a storm is moving in on us — if we just are close enough to nature. But more and more people seem to be separating from nature. I’m trying to go in a different direction. I’m getting closer and closer.
OAP: You trained on El Capitan in Yosemite. Ropeless. Can you even put into words what it was like to be up there, free and without ropes?
DP: Well I wouldn’t really call it training. It was as real as it gets to be up there on El Cap. It was the first time anybody had ever been up on El Cap, on the main face, free solo. I struggled a lot up there with the 2,500 or 3,000 feet (762 to 914 meters) of air below my feet and the knowledge that if I fell I would freefall a good 20 seconds before impact. It’s kind of strange to be a free soloist when you know so much about flying, because I’m playing two opposite games, or practicing two polar opposite arts. One is the art of not falling. The other one is flying. With both those things spinning in my mind, there’s a lot to process and it’s pretty mind-boggling.
OAP: Once you climbed to the top of El Cap, you weren’t able to BASE jump because it is illegal in Yosemite. How do you feel about that?
DP: It’s a thing I struggle with a lot, that in my hometown BASE jumping is illegal, and that Yosemite is really one of the safest places to learn to BASE jump off the steepest, tallest walls and the best climate, pretty much worldwide. I think it’s something that the public and our country should be proud of that we can experiment with human flight. It’s one of the most fundamental desires of man, of being free and flying unhindered, and it really seems to go a lot with our founding fathers’ principles of freedom. But for some reason, BASE jumping is misunderstood and our government forbids it and makes it illegal in most every place in the country. So I’m kind of a criminal here in the United States for pursuing the dream of flight, but everywhere else I go, every other country, I’m kind of looked up to, or fascinated with for the flying that I do. It’s kind of strange to have to leave the land of the free to spread my wings and really be free.
OAP: In your National Geographic show you attempt to climb and fly from Mount Bute in western Canada. What drew you there? It’s not exactly easy to get to.
DP: It was potentially going to be one of the biggest walls I’ve climbed as well as maybe the biggest thing I’ve jumped off of. The emptiness and remoteness of being out there is something that I long for. Even though I am in the public’s eye a lot, that’s kind of in a secondary way, because what I’m always trying to do is just be closer to nature and to be more alone or just with a small group of friends. So it was really intriguing for me to go up Mount Bute with just a few friends and try to do the first free climb of it as a team. A lot of people confuse free climbing with free solo. Free climbing is when we use ropes, but we only make upward progress with our bodies. And so we climbed the first free ascent of Mount Bute as a team, and then figured out a way for me to fly off the wall.
OAP: When you’re standing on a cliff like at Mount Bute and are about to fly off, what’s going through your mind?
DP: The moment before I jump is filled with anxiety and what-ifs. But then as soon as I enter the air, I’m filled with this calmness and that’s the main attraction to it. That’s why I do these death-consequence pursuits or arts. It’s not cause I’m an adrenaline junkie, or Evel Knievel — I kind of cringe at both of those words — it’s because by doing these things our perceptions become heightened and we sense and feel emotions and see and hear and touch and feel more deeply than ever before. That’s the real hook for me.
Tony Uragallo of Tony Suits soars above Zephyrhills, Fla., with Dean Potter as they wear wingsuits designed by Tony.
OAP: What’s a successful flight to you?
DP: Any flight or any experience in life where I have fun — and I don’t get injured. I don’t have a lot of pressure on myself to be successful. I’m more of an artist. I just try to make myself more a part of the most beautiful painting as possible. And enjoy it.
OAP: Since our site is OurAmazingPlanet, what’s your favorite “amazing” thing about planet Earth?
DP: I just love any place that I can sit in the sun and feel the warmth of the sun’s rays, and feel the connection to the planet, really tapping into how small I am and really how insignificant I am in comparison to the universe.
Go: Ski Lake Tahoe
Our Cabin
One of the many perks of living back in California is, of course, the slopes. They are the perfect reason to take a long weekend, fly to San Francisco and road trip to Tahoe with some awesome fellow humans. We got a quaint little cabin equipped with a hot tub, ping pong table and fireplace. It was perfectly cozy! Lots of cooking, wine, music and relaxing. This was my first Tahoe trip, so I was excited to do pretty much anything!
We ended up skiing at Heavenly Resort. Five stars from me! Gorgeous mountain, plenty of terrain (97 runs and 30 lifts! see map) and a great little scene after the lifts closed. It was also a warm sunny day, which always makes skiing better. I particularly liked that you had to take a gondola up from lake level just to get to the base of the Nevada side of the mountain. It really gives you a sense of how big it is. The top lift at Heavenly sits at 10,040 feet. The mountain itself is on the state border, so there is a Nevada side and a California side. Overall, an awesome place to race down a mountain, lounge in a hot tub and consume meals with friends. To many more winter events in cabins!
Never lost this guy thanks to the awesome hat.
View of the Nevada desert from the top of Heavenly.
To the Left: CA snow. To the Right: NV desert.
Taking a much-needed rest on the hike uphill. Yes, I opted to hike to a run because I think I'm tough stuff. Clearly, I become less badass at 10,000ft (if I ever was to begin with).
View from the top!
Beers after a day on the slopes.
Lake Tahoe en Hiver
Lake Tahoe en Hiver Deux
The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket...
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With peace and gratitude.
