Bedwell Sound, the river's source

"Swimming up that dark river to discover it's source... "

.. kept going through my mind today as we paddled (ok, I sat in the middle) a canoe up ___ river in Bedwell Sound, an arm of Clayoquot Sound.
We were scoping out some forestry work, to see if old-growth was being cut, and had a long hike ahead of us after our short paddle, which came after being dropped off by a water taxi, which came after a half hour boat ride from Tofino.

It's a place most people never get to see, I felt priveleged. We saw a bear on the path ahead of us at one point, it wandered off. Peaceful. Art the bear.

The loggers we were scoping out picked us up and drove us back down the hill in the rain, in the back of their pick-up truck. Not the first ride I've had in the back of a pick-up, in the rain, in 'end-of-the-road-country,' and not the best. But there's nothin on earth like riding in the back of a pick-up truck.
We saw heron's, they got up and flew to another spot, a hundred feet off, as we paddled by. Peaceful.

A blue preacher
flew toward the swamp
in slow motion

Out here there are          ... no chuches,
where God is imprisoned and lamented,
like a trapped and wounded animal.

Not trapped. And neither are we.

Swimming up this river, as we walked we talked about sasquatches, dentistry, and talking about dentistry. But also - about finding purpose in life. So casual, when it comes. Like a bear standing in the road in front of you, shrugs, and wanders off into the bush, like a heron flying by, croaking out holy dictates, unintelligable,

no yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittleing of death
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.

I guess that's why I'm here. This is my church. I said a while ago (four or five entries ago) - that I (we) had to figure out which ideal we serve, and then - everything's easy, most questions are answered (or irrelevent) and all we have to do is do it. Serve the earth, lest we remain unused. I guess I, and we - are getting closer to that.

It wasn't a glorious mission, we didn't succeed and get the photos or info we were looking for. We didn't kill Captain Kurtz. We had lunch on a log. I picked up rocks. We saw an eagle, salmon jumped out of the sea,

One is a long time coming to the point
where the enchanted may be free
all charms be neutralized, and everything
be what it, shining, seems to be.