The Grandest of Endings

It's hard to ignore the beauty in things once you start looking for it. All summer, I have been chasing sunsets, connecting with incredible souls, and finding the best in the rawest of experiences. Every moment of the past three months has been about finding what beautiful thing presents itself in that place within space and time; and even in retrospect, I wouldn't have wanted to spend the summer in any other way. 

I've tried to formulate this summer into a variety of mediums. Videos, poems, photos; yet I keep running into one fundamental problem. No matter what I aim to do, I never feel like I'm able to capture the true essence of what the experiences did to make me, the me I am now. Each experience, whether it be sailing, Scouting, or scrambling, reminded me of different important things to this new version of myself.

So, instead of trying to encapsulate it into one grand experience, I want to tell the little stories. The ones that don't come together to make one big piece. The little fragments that are the parts that I am going to remember in the years to come. These are the true moments that made this experience so grand. These are The Grand Detours of this lap around the sun.

It clung to my lips,

carried in the strongest of late night wind,

gathering in small white crystal patterns

across the deck.

It stung when things unraveled,

yet it was the same thing

that lifted us forward,

an endless sea beneath our keel.

Salt.

We crossed it blindly at times,

following no plan but the one

that rose after the first two failed,

trusting nothing but the horizon to teach us

how to begin again.

Sea.

And always, there it was

stretching itself across sunsets

too vivid to hold,

burning red through stairwells,

glowing in the faces around me,

as if the whole world came together & conspired

to remind me of true beauty.

Light.

Dust rose in the heat of the Portuguese squares,

voices mingling in ten or more languages,

yet one laughter cut through the crowd

a compass I did not know I was holding.

Among tiled walls and winding alleys,

we learned the weight of afternoons,

walking slower than the sun,

as if the stones themselves

were asking us to linger;

And so they were.

On the cliffs, the wind pressed hard,

but there was steadiness in standing close.

In the forest, the dark was endless,

until a quiet beside me

made it feel like shelter.

And when the sea swallowed the sun whole,

I carried that last shimmer in land,

knowing some lights follow you

long after the lanterns go out.

The trail wound past birch and stone.

In the hush

reindeer drifted across the alpine,

their breath clouding the air.

For a moment,

I forgot the weight of the world

and remembered only sky.

antlers in sunlight

a wilderness wide enough

to carry silence

Through Garibaldi’s tangled trails I moved,

boots sinking, lungs burning,

eyes wide for danger.

Ridges rolled like ancient waves,

and blue lakes cut paths across stone.

I found them where the fog clung low,

lost in shadowed valleys,

hearts racing like mine.

Hands reached, voices called,

and slowly, step by step, we rose toward the light.

Evening fell, painting peaks in fire and gold,

and I felt it then

the wild,

relentless and vast,

and the quiet pride of carrying someone

home through it.

Garibaldi.

Paddles tap the water slow and steady,

morning light lifting off the lake,

seals sliding beneath,

birds calling far.

Stroke stroke stroke; faster now,

cliffs rising, hearts racing,

laughs ricochet off stone,

we leap, splash, swing

Silence returns, gentle and wide,

sun tilts behind mountains,

ripples fold into the evening,

the scent of pine and cooked food

wraps around us, soft and still.

Pitt Lake

---

My story isn't over so please don't leave this feeling like that is what is occuring. Things will be changing for me though. The travelling Ethan you may have come to know will be taking a brief hiatus. Instead, my efforts will be focused on my career as I start my training to work as a paramedic with the Royal Canadian Navy. Thank you for following this journey and I look forward to opening my journal to you once more as I embark on this new chapter.

With love,

E

Check Out The Whole Grand Detour