How to Sail in Uncharted Waters

One of my few talents is the ability to use a compass and a map and determine where I'm going. I do admit it has been awhile since I have had to find my way by positioning the compass on the map and adjusting for True North, but I like to think it's like riding a bicycle. Once you learn you don't forget.

It's been many years since I've been to Boundary Waters. The last time was when I was nineteen. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is part of the one million acres Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota.

This is a land of ten thousand lakes. You can go days without seeing another soul. I liked that. I'm a bit of a loner at times.

We go through life many times and test boundaries. Sometimes we have physical challenges and sometimes we have mental challenges. Often the physical challenges will test your mental strength as well.

A couple of memories stand out from my several travels to Boundary Waters. One image was seeing my father worried and lost. He was the Scoutmaster for our Boy Scout troop, and we were out in the wilderness and lost. We beached the canoes and unfolded the maps on the rocky shore. No landmarks matched up. The day was fast coming to a close and we needed to find our way to a campsite. We folded the map and pressed on. We were to look for a forest ranger's tower. It was nowhere to be seen. We learned later that it had been torn down years before. Our map was not accurate.

Maps aren't always accurate.

We like to think we have a map for our lives, and often it is different from the actual path we end up taking.

Later, on that same trip one the assistant Scoutmaster, Mr. R. grew uneasy. We reached a portage and he announced that he was going to "walk" back. This was the equivalent of saying that you as an astronaut will walk back from the moon. We learned in short order that he was afraid of water. Mr. R. couldn't swim. Never learned.

Rapids can sometimes catch you unawares in the Boundary Waters. This happens in life, and it happened in Boundary Waters. Mr. R's son, Mike, suddenly got caught up in that white water which took him backwards despite the furtive paddling to try to get upstream.

Finally, you end your trip and you feel like a survivor. You entered the uncharted and you endured the physical challenges and the deprivations and you got to where you wanted to go.

You did so under a blue sky and under your own power. You started with friends and you ended with better friends. Because you survived and endured. You found your way.

What I realized much later was that the lakes in Boundary Waters all connect. You can get turned around but you can't get lost. My father was worried that one summer afternoon, that we were all lost , but he didn't have to be. We were going the right direction, just not the most direct way.

Just like those lakes that connect, I have learned that the things in life connect.

Mr. R and Mike have long ago left my life, and my father belongs to the heavens, but someone close to them has been a new compass in the wilderness. There are no boundaries.