A Bridge Back to Contentment on Vancouver Island
Help thy brother’s boat across and lo!
Thine own has reached the shore.
- Hindu proverb
Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia
This image is of Tofino’s harbor, part of Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Tofino is quite remote, reached by traversing more than 100 miles of old logging roads, paved only a couple of decades ago. The drive winds through majestic mountains and dense forests of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Upon reaching the west coast of the island, pristine waters lap long strands of hard-packed sand.
This trip was a departure from our summer routine of immersing ourselves in historic European cultures. In fact, the destination represented a return to something even more ancient and perhaps even primal, heeding the proverbial “call of the wild,” yielding to an inner instinct to re-connect with the out-of-doors. I had gone through a period of a couple of years facing some serious health issues that, in turn, were causing me to question my career, lifestyle and priorities. I had a nostalgic yearning for what had long ago brought me comfort and peace.
When I was young, my brothers and I were out the door early in the morning, spending our days along our backyard brook, and in the meadow and woods beyond it, returning home only when it got dark. We unearthed slimy rocks from mud at the bottom of the stream and built walled pools, where we kept fat, bottom-feeding suckers we caught with our hands. We huddled inside the hollowed-out trunk of an old, old tree barely hanging on to a hillside, the space inside big enough for three kids. We sledded down snow-packed “Olympic Hill,” and ate our peanut butter sandwiches atop “Big Rock,” a house-sized slab of granite in the midst of a field. These memories recalled a time of simplicity and contentedness. Vancouver Island for me was a bridge back to that state of being.
It certainly wasn’t rough sledding during our stay at the elegant Wickaninnish Inn there, but the property did indeed inspire a sense of communion with the landscape. It’s located on a point extending into the pearl-gray waters of the Pacific, and our room seemed nestled in the boughs of sweet-smelling pine surrounding our balcony. On Chesterman Beach below, we peeked in tide pools, where families of sea anemones waved green arms at each other.
We spent a morning with Mike White aboard the Browning Passage, from which we watched a mother black bear and two cubs overturning stones on the shore of one of the thousands of islands in the Sound. We hiked through old growth rainforests dripping with moss, where we examined “nurse logs.” These pieces of fallen, dead wood become home to insects and new plant life that spawn the next generation of towering trees. We visited the magical Tofino Botanical Gardens, where a brilliant blue Stellar’s Jay guided us through this special ecosystem.
While in the Tofino area, we came across a guiding principle of the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation people, hishuk ish ts’ awalk, or “everything is one.” This philosophy of interconnectedness has influenced the Nuu-chah-nulth’s choices since time immemorial. In this belief system, every being is accorded respect for its own unique value and contribution to the greater good. There is a profound recognition that the authentic nature inherent in every organism plays a role in the well-being of the broader community. Honoring that inter-dependency fosters an environment where all can thrive.
The hush of a forest, the wonder of seeing a ray of light break through high branches, the flap of wings awakening me to the presence of small creatures–these were all gentle reminders that, through one small decision at a time, I had become pretty far removed from whom I had once been, and what had been a source of comfort and joy for me. Thanks in part to a Nuu-chah-nulth-inspired epiphany, I was able to move closer to being true to myself, and, thus, have more to offer my “brother.”
http://www.clayoquotbiosphere.org/
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/
http://www.raincoasteducation.org/
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29008&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Vancouver Island is great, but I’ve never gone as far out of Victoria as you. Maybe on our next trip.
I have now added another “must see” to my list.
I live in Tofino, and yes, it is magical, but Clayoquot Sound is threatened by industrial logging, fish farming and now the possibility of a copper mine within sight of Tofino’s harbour. Visit http://www.focs.ca for more information.