Wilderness Hiking Can Help Us with the Process of Discernment

 

"Discernment is the spiritual task of sifting through what is illusory in our lives to discover what is authentic. It's the process of making decisions that are compatible with who we ARE. One of the gifts I bring back from wilderness trips is the clarity of purpose that's apparent in everything I meet there. Things in the natural world know inherently how to be what they are. Discernment is naturally embedded in them as instinct. Only we humans struggle to figure out who we are and what we should be doing. As poet David Whyte observes, we are the one species able to resist our own flowering . . . Traditionally, the 'discernment of spirits' is a process for sorting out the deepest desires of the heart from the superficial yearnings that distract us. It requires our getting in touch with our truest self, being free to listen and act from our heart's desire. Wilderness hiking helps with that."

Belden Lane,
"Backpacking with the Saints"

This is a book I read around the campfire during my desert retreat last week

Photos: (Top) Juniper tree at Green River Overlook, Island in the Sky District; (Middle) The view from my campsite in the Needles District; (Bottom) Sunset, near my campsite in the Needles District. All three photos were taken in Canyonlands National Park, UT on November 29 - December 1, 2014