A Journey Forgotten

Prelude

All the preparations have been made, companion chosen and contracts agreed.  We are off tonight.  I sit on the edge of the cliff and gaze into the Valley.  I know it'll be hard and I feel the little wisps of doubt creeping up again, as I wonder what this experience will be like this time. 

I have made the journey before so this time it should be easier, but I have heard tell this is not necessarily the case.  I spend the last few hours on my own on the cliff edge resting and meditating in preparation for the journey.

The beginning

Ah, the rapids, I remember how treacherous these are, yet how exhilarating.  My companion and I soon find a system that works.  We know we have to help each other, so we take it in turns to be the inquisitor and the anchor. First one stepping inquisitively forward to find a steady foothold, while the other stands steady as a rock creating an anchor.  Then we swap, as the inquisitor becomes the anchor and the anchor steps through gingerly finding the next foothold.  It's like a dance and we're just learning the steps. 

Slowly the steps become second nature and we can start to focus on our surroundings.  It appears that there are a number of others who have started their journey at the same time.  We laugh at their antics as they misjudge a foothold and they laugh at our mishaps.  We call out encouragement, offer advice to each other, share our shelters with each other and generally have a great deal of fun. 

The journey through the treacherous rapids is racing along.  It is much more fun than I remember.   In fact I am struggling to remember my previous journey at all.

The middle

Today we reached the end of the rapids.  Now we have to decide on the next stage of the journey.  Some members of the group want to go through the brambles, others have heard about the garden at the end of the waterfall.  I am quite reluctant to leave the rapids.  It's been such fun and we've all got on so well.

We set up a shelter and start gathering food.  At night we discuss the options.  No one wants to force their opinions on to anyone else so the decision gets put off.

Our camp grows as we find more and more ways of making ourselves comfortable.  We've discovered that if we weave the long grasses growing at the edge of the river, we can make the shelters more weather proof.   We've made an extra shelter for those passing through so that they don't have to waste time making their own shelter.  Sometimes they decide to stay on with us for a while and so another shelter needs to be built.

We have started shoring up our food supplies so that we don't have to hunt for every meal.  My companion is proving to be the best at making comfortable shelters, I seem to be best at gathering the roots and berries.  Another couple is best at risking the treacherous rapids to catch fresh fish.  Each person finds their unique talent, and instead of each couple having to fend for them selves, we've found that as a group we can use each other's resources.

We spend a lot of time in the evenings as a group, sharing food, discussing the journey through the rapids, discussing the best way to build a shelter, catch a fish, gather berries, any number of new activities. 

We've made a permanent fire place and even started a garden to plant the roots and the berries closer to the shelters so that we don't have go off to gather them.   We've made a fish store in the river, so we don't have to fish every day.   We have a lot more free time now as each day is not spent journeying, making shelter and gathering food.  

I am surprised at how much weight I've put on, in fact we're all putting on weight.  It's from a lack of exercise.  Now that we have some people providing the food, others the shelters, most of us get very little exercise.

There have been some complaints recently that some people are not pulling their weight.  They have nothing to offer the group as they have no experience at fishing, or gardening or building.  Also the people passing through are eating our food, using our shelters and then moving on without offering anything in return.  As there is a build up of waste around the camp we've decided that those who have nothing to offer must use the shelters furthest from the meeting place and that they must remove the waste to the outskirts of the camp in payment for our food.

Today a new couple came through our camp.  They had brought some grasses with them.  Seeing that our supply of grass was dwindling because we'd picked everything close by, they offered us their supply in return for food and shelter.  We all agreed that that was a good way for us to get some new supplies.  We'd make passers through pay for food and shelter. 

A new couple has arrived, they have no supplies that we can use.  They are not keen to work while they are here but are keen to have food and shelter.  They have offered us some trinkets that they brought with them.  We're excited to see the gaudy colours and have decided to agree to their terms.   I've used hem to adorn our shelter and they look lovely.

My neighbours asked where I got the adornments, and are waiting up river, just off the edge of camp, on the lookout for a new couple who might have some trinkets for them.  Everyone in camp is keen to buy trinkets to make their shelters more exciting.  

I found some trinkets in the garden today and have hidden them in a little cache I made in the back of our shelter.  I've made arrangements to trade them for materials for a bigger shelter when I have enough.    I've handed over my share of the garden to one of new comers and have decided to concentrate on finding and storing trinkets.  I was getting bored with the garden anyway.   I can buy far more than I need by trading trinkets than by tending the garden.   I just must not let on how much I've got stashed away though because some people are not content with working for trinkets they want to steal mine. 

My companion has built us a bigger shelter and we moved in today.  The first thing we did was to make a safe hidey-hole for our trinkets.  We're reluctant to leave our shelter uninhabited in case anyone tries to steal our trinkets.  We've decided to pay someone to look after our shelter when we're not there.  We often do not go out to the group to share food and instead fetch food in.  

I don't really miss the group discussions anyway as they're always about who did what to whom, and who's to blame for the old shelters collapsing, the garden deteriorating, the build up of waste and who's got the most trinkets stored.  They complain that they are having to spend too many trinkets on food and shelter, and that the shelter builders and food gatherers, those who live on the outskirts, are cheating them.

I ventured into the edge of the rapids today to try to catch a fish.  I'd forgotten how difficult it was.  Then I remembered that I needed help, so my companion and I tried it together, very unsuccessfully.  Tonight we reminisced about how we used to fish and garden and how much fitter we had been.  We remembered how happy we'd been when we built the first shelter, how much fun we'd had when we had no trinkets.  We remembered how free we'd been when we had no permanent shelter and nothing to guard, when we were still journeying.   I was very sad falling asleep.


The end

I woke this morning with a vivid dream fresh in my mind.  It felt like a revelation.  The reason we were here was to journey through the Valley and we'd forgotten that journey.  We'd become so caught up in making our lives more comfortable that we'd stopped discussing the next route of the journey altogether.

I broached the subject very gingerly with my companion today.  I'm trying to rationalise how to continue our journey without giving up everything we've worked so hard for.    My companion is also reluctant to give up everything and move on.  We're also both so very unfit.  We have at least agreed to start practising in the rapids  and start working in the gardens again.

Today I ventured beyond the gardens and even though I was quite scared I went in search of wild roots and berries.  I was very surprised when I came across quite a few others doing the same.  We struck up conversation and I have discovered that there is quite a large group who have become disillusioned with the camp and are thinking of continuing the journey.   My companion and I have started spending more and more time with this group and it feels like a load is lifting from us.

We have recently started venturing out away from the camp, and taking nothing with us, gone exploring the upper regions of the banks.  The longer we spend away from camp, striking up temporary shelters each night, gathering foods, the less we feel like returning to our large shelter and our cache of trinkets and the politics of camp life.

Tonight we made shelter a long way from the camp.  Neither of us feels like returning to camp.  We've decided to simply continue on up the bank.  We're fit, we've relearned how to find food and shelter, and more importantly, how to co-operate with one another to move along the path.  We're talking again about the journey, exploring and sharing and having fun. 

We seldom even mention the camp any more. Occasionally we discuss our cache of trinkets and wonder who found it and what they spent it on.  We simply cannot believe that we forgot our journey for so long.  The going is relatively tough, but we're determined to finish the journey.  We've found a path leading up the side of the canyon and are following that.  

The higher we get the more we have to rely on each other, and the less we need food and shelter.  We can see the end of the path, it is getting lighter and a feeling of peace fills our hearts.  We hope that the rest of our group soon remember the journey.  We hope that they too can let go of the trinkets and remember that it is love and co-operation that are all that are needed to complete the journey.  We are home.

Finale

I remember how before I started this journey I was convinced that it would be easier because I had done it before.  Instead it had been much more difficult.  I now know that it is important to keep the end goal in your heart and your memory, and to resist the temptations of complacency.

"Next time" I think, "next time, I won't forget the journey".  I stroll along my solitary path on the cliff edge, smiling to myself and shaking my head as I realise that I'm already considering journeying into the Valley again.