Canoe Paddles and Hiking Shoes

I spent last weekend and part of this week on an outdoor adventure with the Eagle Eye girls, Father Nathan and Brother John James. Friday through Sunday I spent with a group called Four Seasons who plan events for each of the four seasons. For this trip, we canoed down the Castor River in Missouri. It was definitely worth the 6 hour drive. Again, we stayed with a very generous family during this part of the trip.

We spent Saturday canoeing down the river, which was relatively low in places, so it was necessary to get out and walk the canoes back into the current in places. At one point, Kristy and I successfully maneuvered through an obscure side passage around a fallen tree. It involved a lot of shrinking into the canoe to travel under branches, but we definitely conquered in that moment. We celebrated Mass on the riverside that day, using flipped over canoes as the altar. I don’t know if any of you have seen pictures of John Paul II celebrating Mass in that fashion, but it was definitely a beautiful moment for me.

After making some new friends as well as celebrating old friendships, the Eagle Eye Institute parted ways from the Four Seasons crew and made our way to Southern Illinois. We set up a camp on Sunday night and then hiked Monday and Tuesday, heading home on Wednesday. I was rather intimidated going into this part of the trip as I’ve never really backpacked, nor have I camped off trail. It ended up being a great experience, as well as giving me added excitement to partake of Eagle Eye Alaska this summer (hopefully). We hiked to the Garden of the Gods—or as Father Nathan calls it, “God’s Garden”—as our final destination.

My favorite moment of the weekend was during the hike. On Monday night we camped off trail near a rock formation overlooking the vast valleys of trees. After setting up camp Father Nathan celebrated Mass for us on the top of this rock formation as the sun was setting. Aside from capturing some stunning pictures of this Mass, it was a beautiful and uplifting time with God.

In our Metaphysics class with Fr. Nathan last night, he said that the whole point in taking us on outdoors adventures is to put us face to face with the reality of our limitations. To feel the solid rock beneath our knees as we knelt before our Lord, to feel the breeze as it swept by, and in the still moments to feel the ache of muscles after a great day of activity. In that moment I was placed before my very existence: not in a way that I was aware of, but through subtle things I often take for granted. It is in confronting the reality of being and finding delight in life, in the world and in the Love of God that I can begin to take small baby steps toward discovering who I am.

A beautiful facet of the Eagle Eye Institute is that our experiences together often relate back directly to what we’re learning in the classroom. We’re not always aware of the lessons as we’re learning them, but with them, we are being formed and shaped to see the world for what it is and to truly begin to live life. So often we allow ourselves to be swept downstream, when there is such richness is striving to swim upstream. Discovering what is truly real and living of it each day with each purposeful stroke, we can begin to discover who God is calling us to be in our daily lives.