Posts Tagged ‘Building SOUL’

Oval Strawbale House gets an Award

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Oval Strawbale House

The Oval Strawbale House has been given an AWARD on April 8, 2010, in the FOUNDING CUSTOM HOME category by the Home Sweet Home Competition;

“The idea for Home Sweet Home sprouted in 2008 during the research and development of OntarioGreenSpec.ca. OntarioGreenSpec.ca is an online directory that was founded by Mindscape Innovations Group (Mindscape) in response to the overwhelming demand for information about green building products and services to serve Ontario’s growing green building market.  Mindscape, experts in green building consulting and certification, developed OntarioGreenSpec.ca as a free directory for use by the public and industry.”

“OntarioGreenSpec.ca exists to shine a bright light on the great products and services available to Ontario’s high performance builders, and to serve Ontario’s green building sector. As such, Home Sweet Home promotes the use of “home-grown” materials.  Not only does a competition entrant need to be located in Ontario, the judging criteria also gives cumulative points for Canadian, Ontarian, and local (within 800km) content, with triple points when the products in the home come from your region of Ontario.”

Elegant. Efficient. Ecological.

From early design considerations of habitat preservation and geopathic energy assessments through to the final stroke of paint, all features were considered for their effect on human health, environment and of course, comfort and beauty.

In our opinion, the Oval Strawbale House exemplifies that which soma earth ARCHITECT and the builder, Evolve Homes, strives to embody in every one of their projects, a home that is all of elegant, efficient and ecological.

Rear View

Elegant

With its elliptical shape borrowed from the natural contours of its surroundings, the house gently perches on a hillside and also based on the sacred geometry of the vesica piscis. The curved walls welcome the sun’s rays into more rooms, for more hours each day than traditional straight walls while simultaneously promoting views of a neighbouring pond. Adjacent shade trees are carefully maintained ensuring seasonal shading and provision of privacy.

Prior to construction, eco-architect, Ingrid Cryns, dowsed for the geopathic earth energy lines to find the best place to position the house to clear the bed, sitting areas for the couch & office as well as the kitchen sink. The architect and owner also identified a very large, three foot diameter, beneficial energy spot on the site and the house was placed so that this energy spot was located just inside at the corner between the living room/mediation room window and upstairs bedroom walls. A plastic line was embedded into the concrete floor slab to connect this spot to the centre of the house at the fireplace to secure the energetic centre of the house with the land. This was the most critical & significant energy enhancing aspect that was implemented. The design of the house with the two curves in plan creates an extremely strong beneficial energy. All together, this creates a very strong sense of well being, joy and calmness when inside the house that is very noticeable to anyone who visits.

Sitting Room with FSC maple floor

Inside, soft finishes including customized sculpted relief work emerging from walls and fireplace surrounds together with luxuriously deep window sills replete with tiled mosaics, complete the unique look and allow personal expression for the Owner, who assisted with design and implementation of such details.

Efficient

Careful attention was paid to sealing of all joints in the building envelope and upgraded conventional insulation. Low- or no-VOC sealants and recycled under-floor insulation, instead of virgin polystyrene, was used. Additionally, this home’s strawbale insulated exterior walls, at + R30, offers significantly better operating performance than ordinary conventional construction methods.

While insulating is important, so too is the notion of massing: using dense materials in which to store and then slowly release heat. A heavy concrete subfloor as well as 1 ½” of plaster on the interior of the bale walls, combine to provide excellent thermal storage capacity. This mass absorbs heat when it is generated via the sun or the radiant floor heat distribution system, and then gently releases this heat again as the air temperature declines. Strategic use of mass provides comfort and efficiency. Working equally well in the summer by robbing the air of its heat as well as humidity to maintain user comfort, this home has no need for mechanical air conditioning.

Masonry Heater - Designed by the Client & Architect

Integration of an historic “kachelofen”, or masonry fireplace, expands the use of mass in this home. Ordinary fireplaces or woodstoves regularly burn uncomfortably hot while also consuming wood inefficiently as up to 70% of the heat escapes through the chimney. Kachelofens incorporate many small channels into specially constructed masonry masses between the firebox and the chimney. These channels absorb the generated heat before it escapes to the chimney – improving efficiencies by a factor of 2x or 3x.

Better still, this mass radiates the captured heat for hours afterward at a slow, gentle pace, allowing the users to bask in a soft, warm glow with all the visual pleasure of an ordinary fireplace.

Meditation room fireplace

Ecological

Local sourcing and use of naturally occurring materials are vital components in reducing the impact of this home. And what could be more local then felling trees from the owner’s surrounding woodlot, milling them on site, having them kiln dried nearby then turning the finished boards into all of the interior doors, cabinet doors, window sills, stair treads and baseboard. To top it all off, literally, natural oil finishes are applied and offer long lasting protection in lieu of ordinary petrochemical based urethanes.

More than simply “low-VOC”, silicate dispersion paints – Canadian  manufactured using silica sand and natural mineral pigments – are used throughout to provide rich colour and naturally mildew-free painted wall finishes. One room was even more specially treated with a clay veneer instead of any paint at all, leaving a suede-like texture that immediately attracts attention. Additionally, some baseboard was sculpted and the fireplace face’s constructed using only earthen based plasters prepared on site from locally available clays. No cement, no polymeric binders…just rich, durable, natural materials.

Kitchen with paperstone counter

Kitchen

Additional Project Details

Energy Savings

• Typical heating energy reduction of 30-50% compared to conventional construction

• Integration into landscape and existing mature trees to provide seasonal shading

• Orientation of major windows primarily toward south & east (primary view of pond) for as much passive solar gain possible through the dense forested site

• No mechanical air conditioning required

• Significant free “daylighting” through strategically located windows to reduce light use

• Further savings in heating costs achievable by owner use of Kachelofen enhanced further if using deadfall trees from own property

• Reduction in embodied energy in building materials through combination of: local sourcing, use of reclaimed/recycled materials and materials requiring fewer processing inputs

• Fibreglass framed windows provide longer life and higher insulating ratings

• Low E coatings on window glazing reduce heat energy from the sun in summer only

• Thermal edge spacers between window panes reduce thermal bridging

• “Massing” strategically used for efficient thermal storage and heat delivery

• Efficient radiant floor heat distribution on main floor and hot water radiators on second storey

• High-efficiency condensing boiler for domestic hot water and all space heating

• High efficiency Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV), professionally balanced on start-up

Stairs

Environmentally Preferred Materials

• Local, reused and reclaimed materials and minimally processed materials reduce embody energy inherent in ordinary construction

• Reclaimed wide plank beech flooring

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified flooring

• Clay veneer wall finishes

• Earthen-based plaster fireplace facing and embellishments

• Strawbale exterior walls complete with hand-applied plaster finish

• Solid wood flooring

• Natural oil wood finishes

• VOC-free mineral based naturally pigmented paints

• Soy based polyurethane vaulted ceiling insulation

• Simulated, long lasting (50yr warranty) cedar shake roofing invented in Canada (Enviroshake)

• Locally made mineral wool attic insulation

• Interior doors, baseboard, window sills, kitchen cabinet doors and stair treads all made by local craftspeople from trees felled adjacent to house

• Kitchen counter top made from pressed and recycled post-consumer paper waste into resilient, satin finished surface

Wood trim & door detail

Waste Reduction

• Lumber off-cuts stored and sorted for reuse later in project

• Construction waste streamed appropriately for local municipal recycling programs

• No general waste construction bin used on site

Transportation

• House is walkable to community centre, shopping, banks and other amenities

• Staff carpool to site to reduce commuting energy costs; some staff stay temporarily on site during construction, eliminating the need for daily commute

• A south facing Potting Room will enable off-season vegetable greens and fruit to be grown while annuals get a head start on the outdoor planting season thereby reducing reliance on shipped in foodstuffs

3Rd Party Labeling Programs Utilized

• Eco-logo™ certified drywall

• Energy Star™ rated windows

• FSC™ certified hard maple flooring

• HRI Institute™ approved heat recovery ventilator (HRV) unit

Technical Repeatability

• All materials selected currently available in the Ontario market

• Traditional trades can use existing skills applied to alternative materials

• Design strategies customized for this site and user though same rules can be applied differently as appropriate for varying circumstances

Affordability

• Super insulated, environmentally preferable straw bale wall system comparable price to ordinary frame wall with brick or stucco finish

• Site felled trees were prepared for use at similar cost to purchasing raw material with unknown provenance from ordinary lumber suppliers

• Mineral wool batt insulation costs just 5% more than fiberglass though with a higher insulating rating, easier & much healthier to install and advantageous hydro-phobic properties

• Sustainably harvested hard maple flooring with consistent clear grade ordinary maple from unknown sources at traditional retailers

• Quality, durable materials and careful construction detailing will ensure longevity of house to reduce ongoing repair and maintenance

Technical Innovation

• The builder, Evolve Builders,  has strategically systemized construction processes and details for straw bale walls to make this labour intensive building method cost-competitive with ordinary construction

• Simple, successful, repeatable “technologies” borrowed from historic building techniques then reformulated or adapted for modern expectations including: natural finishing oils for wood treatment, clay binders for wall finishes, mineral pigments for paint tinting

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Building a HOGAN

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I refer to a Hogan in my new book [soma earth HOME ENERGETIC BALANCING]. The below link is a fabulous slide show, showing how to construct one yourself! The pictures of the round wood frame structure are beautiful!

Building a Hogan - SLIDE SHOW LINK

Building a Hogan - SLIDE SHOW LINK

For the Navajo, the spirit of the home is called a Hogan, and is treated like a living object by its inhabitants. It needs to be taken care of and loved to sustain the harmony of the Navajo home life. Historically they were originally a separate hut in the community and were used for ceremonies and to keep themselves in balance. Often built in a teepee shape or in a rounded mud shape, they were constructed out of wood poles and straw, clay and/or stones, either a 5 or 8 sided, usually facing the east.
“Hogan’s are personified in ordinary conservation – they are alive; they need to be fed, cared for, spoken to, and shielded from loneliness”

Frisbee, Charlotte J., The Navajo House Blessing Ceremonial 1980, p.166

Hogan round wood structure

Hogan round wood structure

The house blessing ritual aims to “feed the house, show proper treatment and respect to it, prevent timber breakage, and remove the Hogan’s loneliness” (Frisbie, C., The Navajo House Blessing Ceremonial, 1980, p. 176). A sacred song called the Blessingway is chanted during the ceremony. The Hogan’s loneliness, before the ceremony is performed, is a dangerous thing as it can attract evil spirits; “every new house is taboo until, by appropriate rites, it is made noa (secular or profane)” (Van Gennep, A., The Rites of Passage, 1960, p. 24).

The house blessing ceremony of the Navajo is performed so that the Hogan may be lived in by its designated inhabitants. When the built Hogan is finished, the medicine man blesses the home in beauty, invites happiness from the 4 directions as well as from the earth & sky, and asks for protection from illnesses and evil. The home is marked inside on the 4 walls with a sacred symbol to remind its inhabitants that it is graced with the blessings of the Great Spirit.

A finished HOGAN

A finished HOGAN

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There is always a way out!

Monday, March 30th, 2009

For a little humour these days.   Sometimes it seems like things get bogged down, clogged.  But there is always a way through, albeit sometimes it’s a long journey and you can get a little ‘dirty’ along the way.  But if you vibrate at the frequency of a BEE, you can get through anything!  Bee’s are remarkable BE-ings.  Guaranteed to build your SOUL if a BEE moves through you…….

Enjoy!

There is always a way out!

Humanity has always had a close relationship with bees, whose honey has have been a food staple since before the dawn of civilization. As a symbol, the bees’ lifestyle mimics that of the human social order- a cooperative, productive social hierarchy. In fact, beekeeping is one of the earliest markers of civilized society- bees provided many of the necessities of advancement, providing not only food, but wax for metalworking, cosmetics, and medicines, as well as the ever-important pollinization of fruit trees and other food crops.

Bee polinating a flower

Bee pollinating a flower

The cultivation of honey was a sacred charge often imbued with ritual symbolism and associated with the mother goddess, whose nurturing protection of mankind was symbolized by the abundance of honey provided to bee society under the reign of the queen bee.

As it was widely believed that bees were born spontaneously, they were widely viewed as symbols of chastity and purity. The Bee’s never-flagging labors made them an emblem of hard work, industriousness, teamwork, perseverence, charity, selflessness, and constancy.

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Listening to Trees

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

View of pond from proposed house location

I had a rather remarkable spiritual experience the other day. My client, Martin, is building a strawbale house on his land in Erin, Ontario (near Orangeville) and wants to use some of the wood that he has on the land for his new house. He had someone come to locate and identify how much and what types of trees he could use. Several were found; Ash, cedar, maple and even black cherry (a lovely, reddish toned, wood). Maple, a hard wood, can be used for stairs and a countertop. The ash or black cherry can be used for trim, kitchen cupboards, etc. and the cedar can be used for outdoor columns as it weathers the best. There are a lot of trees on his lot and there was plenty of the gorgeous black cherry that he could use as much as he needed for anything in the house.

Knowing that all trees, plants, stones and the earth has a form of consciousness through my own shamanic journeying experiences, I mentioned to him that it would be good to talk with the trees, ask permission for felling and give the spirit of the tree’s time to withdraw their energy from the tree’s that had been marked and chosen. Being trained as a Reiki healer and permaculturist, he was sensitive to energies himself and agreed with this idea.

View of driveway

So we went on a visit to his land to find a way to do this together. As it was the middle of February, it was a rather snowy, cold & blustery day. Martin has a quite beautiful piece of property. There is a very long, wooded, drive that follows a larger creek that is about a 75’ steep drop, below the level of the driveway. This drive is about over 1000’ long and takes several minutes to walk to the main, central area of the land. It is truly magical, full of very tall, mature and mostly deciduous trees and being located in contrast to lots of open farmer’s fields all around it.

In the winter, without the mask of the wind blowing the leaves, what you hear mostly is the crackling and friction-sliding of some of the trees rubbing against each other. It’s like they are talking in their own language as you walk along beside them. You immediately feel like you are in a Lord of the Rings movie, the effect is so striking.

Pond view

When you get to the end of the driveway, there is instantaneously a very large open pond that greets you with an incredibly positive ‘AH HA’ and ‘TA DA’ feeling. It makes you pause and take in a truly spacious feeling, especially in contrast to the length of the wooded canopy of the long driveway. This man-made, body of water has been here for many decades and seems to generate a very positive chi or vital force energy. It is linked up with a series of creeks, so there is a constant flow and movement of energy through one side of the water that keeps it fairly fresh. Where the water flows out at the south-east corner/end of the pond, towards the creek that is flowing along the driveway, there is a small curved bit of land, hidden from the main path along the pond, after a little concrete bridge, waterfall area. This little area is extremely fecund in energy due to the swirling and strong curved shape of the creek here. I discovered this spot, in my initial visit to the land in the Fall, to be a very strong nature spirit area, where one can contact the fairies or other elementals quite easily. I plan to spend some time mediating there in the spring and summer when I visit the building during construction to see and hear what can happen.

Different types of Dowing Rods

The house is to be situated on the south-west side of the pond, a little in the edge of the woods, looking over the water. It is truly a wonderful siting. We went to the general house site area, to confirm the location of the house in regards to several conditions. One of them being some positive energy spots that we had found and marked in the fall by dowsing, that we where trying to find a good location for them in the initial house design and were fairly close to finalizing. There was one very large & strong spot, 3’ in diameter, that we were trying to locate in the living room, with the meditation room above, but there was also a very large, 4 trunk birch tree that would block the view of the lake in front of the 2 very large picture windows of those rooms. So it was a bit of a juggling act to find the precise location with these parameters.

Geopathic Earth Energy Lines

Geopathic Earth Energy Lines laid out on a landscape

Now I will be going back to the drawing board and will locate the geopathic earth energy lines, first by long distance, then on site, to finalize the exact placing of the building on the land. This way the building can be placed on the site with consciousness and awareness, much like placing a new heart into the body, with awareness of where those blood vessels are that you are connecting to. Our aim is to locate the house so that the energy flow and chi of the land can receive it and be integrated together with it.

Once this initial siting investigation was finished we then proceeded to find the trees that have been marked to be felled. I hugged the first tree that we found, a black cherry tree right where the house would be. I felt its energy as strong, vital and a little rough on the edges. Kind of like how venison meat would be stronger in a kind of pungent taste than regular beef. It was a distinct feeling.

I meditated with the tree and introduced Martin (who was also hugging the tree) as the new steward of the land. I said that he wanted to use some of the trees to build his house with and wanted their permission to use some of them. I waited, without bias, for an answer (this part is important to do) and felt an openness inside of me which was a ‘yes – you have permission’ (which doesn’t always happen and you have to be prepared for this), it came with a promise required from my client to honour, respect with great reverence and listen to the needs of the land when he lives here. Being a permaculturist, this was clearly what Martin always intended from the bottom of his heart. I explained this to him and he said so out loud as a verbal promise to the land. I feel that this is an important conscious statement to make to the land for any steward. I told the tree that in at least 3 days or more, the trees would be felled and they would need to vacate it energetically. This was enough time to do so and they agreed to this.

It was also important to do a kind of ritual marking this event and honouring the gift of these trees agreeing to be felled and be transformed into parts of the house. Normally, I would do this with a client right then and there on the land, but it was so, so cold and we were tired, being the end of the day – and I had forgotten my sacred cornmeal that I use for these kinds of ceremonies. So I checked with the tree and it was found to be acceptable to do this long distance, at home, as long as there was a piece of the tree to hold the resonance of this. And that as Martin was sensitive to energy himself, it was also fine and appropriate that he could do this by himself, in his own way. When this is possible, I like to encourage that, as the land truly wants a direct relationship with its benefactor and these events are one of the ways to begin this connection.

I also discovered that I only needed to say this to one tree only of each species, as they were all energetically tied to together as a collective mind and what was told to one was understood immediately by all. This was really helpful, as we were truly freezing our butts off.

We then proceed with the same method to the other trees. The cedar tree energy was kind of a longer, skinny/thinner quality and had something like more of a feminine, delicate kind of energy. Being an evergreen perhaps, there really was a different quality to it that surprised me. I had never hugged several trees in a row, feeling the differences between them. Tree hugging had always been a single, solitary and intermittent experience in my past that was more about me and my own healing journey, than in this kind of experience.

The maple tree was again very different. It felt more like smooth peanut butter energy that was also much a kind of larger, broader stronger energy quality and older or something (it was larger than the first two trees). It felt more like the King of the different tree species than the other two, or at least like an older brother somewhat. We collected small branch fragments or a very small piece of bark from the trees for my client to bring home and use for his ritual.

All in all, it was a very satisfying experience, it felt absolutely right and it is now part of my continuously developing repertoire of working with the land when building a new house on it. Both Martin and myself held a distinct feeling of awe and wonder as to what had transpired for both of us that we will always carry as something special in our hearts and also with each other. I truly feel very blessed and have much gratitude to have clients with his sensitivities who can respond to this level of listening with me.

Thank you Martin!

May the world continue to grow and expand to this level of healing the earth with all buildings one day….

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Craving stillness in building my SOUL

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
lotus

lotus

“We now have to learn to invite the silence, and having invited it we now have to learn to enter it.”

- Robert Sarello

I have been noticing lately at how hard it is to hold a good, steady focus and how ‘busy’ things always seem to be.  I have understood this as a response to the creative impulse of my soul.  As I have truly followed my passion and trusted that what was calling me to create that which gives me the greatest joy, I have found many challenges as well as inspiring moments along this path of building my own SOUL.

It’s one thing to create your passion and unblock what may be holding you back from receiving ABUNDANCE on all levels.  I have spent years clearing my past emotional history, to change my patterns and re-organize and re-frame how I view reality and my expectations.  I have learned how to let go of the past and to manage and hold a clearer intention of what I want in the future. To imagine what before seemed the impossible and to dream bigger than I could even imagine.  I have learned how to listen to those minute wobbles of non-clarity within myself and to do what may need to be done to change myself, attune myself differently to get what I think I might want (sometimes you learn it’s not really want you want, so I’m much more careful when I do wish for something!) .  And then it’s quite another thing to be in the FLOW and to manage the SURGES of how my spiritual, sexual, creative impulse goes out into the world and then actually experience the world responding back to me with an even bigger YES!

Then there is so much to do that I often find myself running around, driving too fast on errands, letting papers pile up on my desk, trying to manage all the parts of what I’ve started, but feeling like I can never really catch up!  I’m learning how to delegate more now and to trust the flow and let things be a little messier or uneven.   I’m noticing how my breathing goes higher up in my chest and how my stomach goes tight in anxiety to keep it all together.  My work can be so, so, busy, full, demanding and overwhelming at times.  I feel this constant pressure and feel like I am always rushing from one thing to the next.  In the evenings I just can’t think and when I don’t take down time to do absolutely nothing on the weekends to balance it, I feel it during the week.

I find that when I can relax into this and let go a bit, trusting my intuition more, magic & synchronicity starts to happen.  A kind of effortless lightness begins to be cultivated and things begin to get accomplished quicker in unusual ways that my chronological, left brain never considered as a possibility before.

What I’ve learned is that whenever I feel this ‘rush’ kind of feeling, I have to slow down, get more grounded and centered and then should triple check the minute details of what I’m doing.  I find when I’m in the ‘rushing’ space, details get lost and I make mistakes.  I used to do that when I wrote tests as I child.  I could write them fast, but I often didn’t double check the test and made silly mistakes only because of my speed.  The thing is that when you are in it, it usually is hard to know that you are not grounded as you normally are.  It’s more in retrospect that you find this out, after you’ve made an error or crossed a line and felt afterwards that something doesn’t feel right.

I’ve also heard from a number of other sources that it is continuously harder for us to feel grounded or centred on a daily basis due to the fact that the earth’s electromagnetic fields are weakening because of EMF (Electromagnetic frequency) toxicity and I am aware too that the North/South pole is slowly also shifting on it’s axis, which affects our equilibrium.

And I’ve also heard that TIME is doing weird things and actually speeding up – we don’t see that on the clock or how time is recorded, but the feeling is there and has also been commented on by various friends to me. It feels like time is compressed and events appear to rush by, the day goes faster and faster.  To stop and just breathe, taking in someone’s kind comment, eye contact for a minute or noticing a beautiful thing outside in nature, all helps to slow it all down.

All of this means that we have to constantly ‘recalibrate’ ourselves daily and do things to slow us down more and more to be able to catch those details and also be gentle on ourselves when we make mistakes (my reminder as I am still hard on myself for doing that).

I find myself craving downtime to balance the business of the majority of my days.  I often will watch a movie, to help shut off the thinking of my huge to do list.  But what I’m actually really craving is to touch into the space of SILENCE.  Everything else is a temporary band aid solution that only comforts for a bit, manages me temporarily.  Finding the time and focus to drop into SILENCE is what will be able to hold me in such a way that nothing else will satisfy.

Just like we build spaces and buildings around us to shelter, protect our physical bodies, we can also cultivate inner spaces that can nourish us, inspire us, re-charge us.  It takes attention, self-reflection, spiritual warrier work to be able to sit still and hear your fears, face your aloneness (or all-one-ness), learn how to slow it all down and come back to the centre, the hub rather than running around like a goose with it’s head cut off, running around the periphery of the wheel, of yourself.  This hanging out on the periphery of who you truly are in your SOUL, keeps your energy on the edge, loosing bits, scattering yourself in a kind of constant, high anxiety,  panic.

Hub and spokes wheel

My gentle suggestion for all of you is to find out what you need to do to come back to your centre and to learn how to cultivate your inner silence and then practice, nourish, grow it as much as you can.  It is a practice and I’m still only a beginner…….I hear my SOUL calling me deeper into my interior……gtg…

“Drawing attention to the heart focuses the mystery we are entering. As both physical organ and spiritual-imaginative center, it is the only true organ for perceiving Silence. Once activated in the heart, Silence spreads throughout the body, and we feel as if our entire physiology alters. Instead of perceiving things held apart from other things in sharp and heavy outline, as is usual, we enter into a feeling-perception of the interior space around us that gives birth to all things. Artists have an intuition of this kind of interior in working with negative space. But the space of Silence is something more than that because it is not merely the void from which things spring up; it is a living presence. The deeper we enter into Silence the more we become aware that this living presence is primary and the contents of our perceiving are the secondary bursting forth of this original presence. For a moment we are dizzied beyond belief. If only we had the courage to ward off the dizziness and stay in its presence, who knows where we would be taken. Instead, we recover our usual sensing and, at most, feel the continued resonance of the Silence.”

Robert Sardello

Inner Silence

Inner Silence

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Building SOUL with a CANOE !!

Saturday, October 11th, 2008
Horse Island Lake, Dorset, Ontario

Horse Island Lake, Dorset, Ontario

You may have noticed a picture of a canoe at the top header of this Blog.  I choose an image of a canoe as the canoe has not only been a significant vehicle that has helped me to find my own soul, but it is also a uniquely beautiful form of construction that has so much elegance, efficiency & intuitive geometry inherent in it.

A canoe trip builds SOUL.

Initially in my journey to find myself, who I am, why I exist, I went up north to Algonquin Park, or the Frost Centre area (Haliburton, Dorset, Minden) and did many solo trips.  I consciously did this to meet my great fear of being ALONE.

On my very first trip, I was so bold, naive and rash that I didn’t even know how to carry the canoe all by myself.  I found myself at the first portage and lifted the canoe at one end, jimmied up to the middle underneath it, put it on top of my head, turned around until I was facing out and then lifted it up onto my shoulders.  Then I started walking on the portage.  Except that I forgot to check the map and somehow there was a fork in the road – AND I TOOK THE WRONG FORK!

After walking for half a mile, I thought I should have been at the end by then, I put down the canoe and checked the map.  I realized my mistake and turned around, but at this point, I was so tired that I could hardly keep it on my shoulders.  I then realized that the weight of the canoe was truly making me feel my body, my legs and the minute movements of my hips rotating in my sockets.  I was feeling very ‘grounded’ for the first time in my life, but there was only so far, a limit to what my body could actually do.  I eventually started dragging the damn thing behind me, not carrying if it got scratched to death.  The objective idea of my ‘romance’ of going on a ’spiritual warrior’ adventure to meet myself in the middle of nowhere was beginning to wear thin.  I finally arrived at the end of the portage and discovered that there were very, very strong winds coming across the lake.  After about 5 min. of trying to steer my solo canoe I realized that if I sat in the very front I could have some control – but it still was soooo hard to really get anywhere against the wind.  I ended up turning around and found a campsite on an island right across from the portage.  It was a bit of a quieter bay here and so I settled in.

That night I woke up to an incredible ruckus.  An animal was trying to get into my olive barrels of food that I had stuffed under my canoe which was on a very steeply sloped rock.  I was truly terrified.  I finally peeked out of my tent and discovered – it was only a raccoon!  Phew!  I got my flashlight and jumped out yelling to scare him away.  I protected my stash.  But the rest of the night I slept fitfully, always wondering if the ‘coon would come back.  I had been too tired to hang the food up that night and just thought it might be ok under the weight of the canoe.

Over the next couple of days, I realized that my campsite was situated on a portage/canoe route highway into the deeper routes of Algonquin Park.  I never really was alone much.  In fact some people actually came onto ‘my campsite’ to sit out of the intense wind of the lake and I asked them to leave – so that I could be alone!

Since them, I have done many, many other solo trips and learned so many things about myself.  I will share more of those stories & lessons over time.  This was my ‘initiation’ trip.  I learned about the limitations of my body and that it is OK to stop where you are, regroup and do what you can with what you have.  I also learned – I really am never alone.

Wood Canoe Construction

Wood Canoe Construction

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