What I learned from the wilderness:

Wisdom gems that came from solo trekking hundreds of miles through the Canadian Rockies.

~Everything I share here is from direct experience and not from outside influence.

I did not survive because I was skilled, or experienced, or had good gear (although all of those things are very important and can surely make the difference in surviving.)

I had none of those things. I believe that only by God’s grace did I make it out alive.

My strongest desire was to have direct connection with the supreme intelligence that created this creation. Whatever created snow capped mountains, shimmering streams, elk, hawk, forests, and flowers must be some kind of a beautiful, majestic kind of intelligence.

I wanted to live life on Life’s terms. I wanted to understand what it means to be human. I wanted to experience what it means to be human in the raw, untouched wilderness of God’s creation.

I had no interest in the modern world. I wanted nothing from that world. All of that is what motivated me to keep going forward ever deeper into the wilderness.

I was not courageous, I was absolutely terrified. Nevertheless, something within trusted the journey and persevered.

In the first months of wilderness immersion, the emotions were especially strong and difficult.

I also felt disconnected from nature. This was agonizing. It was as if I was looking at nature, but I yearned to be inside of it. I wanted to be part of it. But how?

I started out in emotional agony from a traumatized childhood, and I was terribly confused about everything. The modern world made no sense.

At times, the mental and emotional turmoil was nearly unbearable. My body kept me going. I marveled at the endurance of the human body. Fortunately, I was an athlete, a long distance runner and a long distance swimmer, so I had the physical endurance to handle being in the elements all the time and walking all day, every day.

I learned that the way we are designed as human beings is that the mind can heal itself when it is given ample space. Long quiet days of walking for weeks, months, and seasons was what it took for me to discover a grand and beautiful reality in harmony with life.

Sure there was some turmoil on the surface of the mind that eventually quieted down. But the mind was working it all out on its own accord. There is an order to consciousness if we give it the space to order itself. I did not have any idea how to fix myself. I did not even know what was wrong with me. I just knew something was terribly wrong with me and with the life I knew in the modern world.

Somehow, as a teenager, I had some kind of instinctual knowing that the wilderness would heal me.

I surrendered. I did not have any expectations of any of my prayers being answered, or if there really was a God. I certainly did not have any expectations that I’d actually be able to have some kind of direct communication.

My first acknowledgement of being communicated with, was a grand, epic epiphany. Oh my God, You really do exist! OMG, You really are communicating! OMG, OMG! My heart exploded in excitement. That was worth everything. So, I kept going. (My book has the details of these epiphanies and discoveries.)

Other epiphanies arose among the trees and the meadows, the swampy muskeg, and the brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows of the summer hillsides. Immersed in the natural order of life, it becomes obvious what was off or wrong about the modern world. I could see through the programming and conditioning. It all felt terribly wrong. There was nothing pulling on me to go back to civilization.

I eventually learned that the nature of nature heals. The nature of nature balances. The nature of nature grows and evolves.

I had no protection. So, it was natural to pray for ‘protection’. After several truly miraculous life saving events, I’d be insane not to acknowledge that there was indeed an invisible, loving, protective omnipresent force watching over me. Otherwise, I would not have had the miraculous, I mean truly miraculous events occur. It was just not my time.

I came to discover the divine principle of, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive.’ as a true divine principle. I asked, I prayed for protection often, again, because I was scared all the time, and indeed I received it.

The truths I learned through experience may sound cliche, yet the difference of intellectually knowing and experientially knowing are worlds apart.

For example: I learned that animals, trees, plants, streams, birds, the sun, the sky, it is all conscious and quite intelligent. It is interconnected and it communicates with all aspects of itself.

Decoding this primordial language can happen within long periods of uninterrupted quiet, tracking every thought, every prayer, every dream, and observing how Life responds. I’m sure I was quite dense and only able to pick up on a tiny fraction of how nature, or Source communicating through nature, was communicating with me.

Because divine consciousness animates all of life, we cannot really separate God from Nature as Nature is an expression of God.

When we are forced to survive in the wilderness, our faculties are sharpened. Our perceptions are sharpened. Intuition is sharpened. Dreams are more lucid. We can hear, feel, and see how we are being taught and guided.

Dreams were more prophetic. I had more flying dreams. I had dreams of turning into animals, of communicating with animals. The dreams taught me how animals live, how they hunt, how they communicate. And then those dreams flowed into real life situations when crossing paths with those animals.

After many months and seasons of deepening into the wilderness, eventually I came to a feeling of communion with the wilderness. I finally merged inside of it and became part of it. This was indescribably empowering. Just to glimpse our symbiotic relationship with nature experientially is epic.

For me personally, there never has been any experiences as fulfilling as what I experienced in the wilderness. So, when I eventually returned to civilization, I always lived on the edge of the wilderness for balance and sanity.

I learned that the majesty and beauty and harmony of nature is a reflection of our own souls. That every part of nature is a part of us.

It makes sense to me that because we have been co-existing and evolving with nature for eons, that we need our connection with nature to take the next step of our evolution. Perhaps we need to attune with Earth, Sun, and the forces of nature in order to ascend to the next level of our evolutionary journey. Or, for some people, all that may be needed is respect and gratitude for our Earth and our nature relatives.

There were countless timeless lessons I received alone in the mountains. I wrote this section for those that will not be able to enjoy these gems through the book in a story form. Us humans tend to understand and be more engaged with a story rather than separate gems of wisdom.

I am creating an audio version that will be accessible on this website in the near future.

I must offer a disclaimer here and emphasize that it is very dangerous and seriously life threatening to attempt to go into the wilderness, especially alone! Experience, skills, and excellent gear are absolutely required. Because now our Earth is out of balance, the animals are confused and more scared and more unpredictable too. For many reasons, it is more dangerous now than it was 50 years ago. Personally, I do not want to go too far out there, especially alone.

We can restore our sense of connectedness with life within ourselves where ever we are. In fact, we are nature, we are inseparable from nature. We can also adventure within our own homes through reading, or audios, or music, or nature videos. The inner quiet of a meditative practice is an excellent way to free the mind right at home.

My friends, be safe. Do not take crazy risks.

With all my love,

Marta ~ Omi