Guiding Spirit Journeys

09/30/2025

09/29/2025

When wildlife steps onto our property, it isn’t “trespassing.” It’s surviving. 🌿
Every day, countless animals cross human land because we’ve claimed most of the Earth for ourselves.

The truth is: this planet was never meant to be ours alone. It’s a shared home—belonging to millions of other species, each struggling in their own way to adapt to a changing world. Sharing space with them may feel inconvenient sometimes, but it’s part of living on a shared planet. 🌍

Today, 95% of Earth’s land has been reshaped by cities, farms, and roads. Forests are cut, wetlands drained, grasslands paved over. The untouched wilderness left behind is far too little for all who once roamed freely.

That’s why we now see bears wandering into yards, coyotes pacing suburban streets, or deer grazing quietly in neighborhoods. They’re not invading. They’re not dangerous intruders. They’re simply searching—for food, for water, for a safe place to exist. 🐾

If we dream of a healthier Earth, we must learn to leave space not only for ourselves but for the wild hearts that keep this planet alive.

✨ Let’s bring compassion back into being human. ✨

📸: Miss Rhaeny

09/27/2025

How I go to the woods 🌲
By Mary Oliver

08/16/2025

Day 1 in the Boundary Waters. Little Indian Sioux Entry. Devil’s cascade, steak 🥩 and lobster🦞 🍄‍🟫 August is a fine time in the forest. 🤗🌲🛶🏕️

08/16/2025

Another 5 days in the forest soothes the soul. Rushing waters, steak and lobster, a whole lake to ourselves and for two days, no other people. Heaven 🌲💖✨🛶

08/14/2025

Map Reading Skills Are On The Decline | For every canoe trip I’ve been on, I’ve planned 10 more. Maybe that seems excessive, like I’m wasting time or not tripping enough. Okay, the latter is probably always true. But to me it’s not excessive when I get so much enjoyment out of just looking at maps.

I get laughed at every year when I’m asked what I want for Christmas. Maps of canoe trip areas are always onthe list. In the map drawer of my gear closet there are lots of maps of places I’ve yet to go. Some I have no intent of going anytime soon, maybe never. But that doesn’t stop me from taking the maps out once in a while and planning new routes; for future trips, I think, or maybe just to have something to dream about by the woodstove in February.

According to a recent poll conducted by Ordnance Survey, three-quarters of adults in the United Kingdom can’t read a map. The other quarter must be canoe trippers, like me.

It begs the question, what do maps look like to people who can’t read them?

I’m willing to bet what the poll actually meant was that people can’t use maps anymore, at least not independently. We still use maps in the sense that we have GPS devices showing us the map and telling us how to get there. But how many people can do the navigating themselves? I think wilderness trippers are probably the few remaining folks who can.

Continue reading: https://bit.ly/40wgxzs

✍️: Marissa Evans
📷: David Jackson
📖: Issue 70 of Paddling Magazine

07/31/2025

Just returned from 5 days on trail. Wilderness for the soul.