I took myself on a trip this spring. I came away from this trip with the life-altering realization that I had made my life unnecessarily complicated and busy. My journey took me to a special world amongst some of the most amazing creatures on earth…grizzly bears. Just seven other guests, two crew members and I boarded two float planes from Prince Rupert into the exquisitely serene and incredibly beautiful Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary…a land where grizzly bears are fiercely protected and where they can never, and I do mean never, be hunted… it’s the law!

I struggle to find the words to describe the experience of viewing and floating amongst these gracious creatures. I say gracious because they allow us to enter their environment and click away with our cameras yet they carry on in tranquility. They must feel that they are indeed protected and that we observant and excited humans are no threat to them. They continue to eat and roam and swim and simply carry on with their peaceful lives as they accomodate us mere mortals.

We all realized, at the end of our time in the Khutzeymateen, that we were privileged to share this time with these beautiful bears and with each other. It’s a really special thing that goes on when you live only on the water (either the sailboat/ketch or Zodiac raft) with 9 strangers and depart four days later as dear friends. Friends that share a common desire to view, photograph and learn about the grizzly bear and respect their precious and beautiful environment.

Returning home I knew I had to make some changes. To slow it down…for heaven’s sake, after all, I’m retired! That meant letting go of some things, completing other things to finality, focusing on what’s really important (Faith-Family-Farm) and allow myself to breathe. It takes a get-away to wake up and figure things out. And it has taken until around now…5 months since Khutzeymateen…to write these thoughts and share them in my blog.