Managing Adversity
Through The Cycle Of Life
The Early Days of Recreational Adversity. Photo: Doug Warden
For twenty five years I ardently practised the difficult craft of climbing frozen waterfalls. In the mountains of Canada there are a plethora of water falls that tumble down the gullies and rocky faces. These veils of cascading water freeze almost solid in winter, with the exception of a constant frigid trickle. The Blue-green water ice pillars create an environment that is at once desperately uncomfortable, yet vitality inducing to engage with. Cold and wet is difficult, so onerous in fact that it would have been easy for me to avoid the whole experience. But the practise of willingly engaging in hardship by climbing ice took me to the most beautiful places imaginable on this good Earth and most importantly taught me a critical life lesson about managing adversity. A lesson that would have profound utility in saving my life.
Trophy Wall Enchainment
Keith Haberl and Ken Wylie on the last route for the day, Sea of Vapours February 1997. Photo: Stuart Wagstaff
To experience the vitality that success in the arena of water fall ice climbing can provide, a sacrifice was required. No, we didn’t slaughter a sheep at the base of the frozen pillar before we climbed. Nor did I understand this concept at the time. But the idea of the death of something to use as an exchange for the vitality one receives was a process that I now see that happened, albeit internally and unconsciously. Some personality aspect that did not serve me needed to die, so that I could experience living fully on this icy arena. We honoured of Cycle of Life. This concept may seem foreign to you. Yet in fact every time we sit down to a dinner we dine on death regardless if we are a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. This is why it is important to honour the meal with gratitude for whatever gave up its life so we can live.
The most obvious human trait that did not serve me before entering the experience of climbing ice, was the shadowy practise of denial. The single easiest thing would be to deny exposing myself to the cold. Instead, I let the urge to scurry back to the comforts of home perish, every single time I went ice climbing. There were many other forms of denial that I let expire in order to climb ice. Denial is always the gate keeper that must be disposed of when wrestling with adversity. The death of denial means that one enters into acceptance, a resourceful mindset that is needed for solving any challenge. Accepting the voice that says, “I can do this” is key. These are not my ideas, only a modern day application of them. My experience of the Cycle of Life on the ice mirrors the ancient mythological teachings.
Scholars of the human mythological journey like Joseph Campbell, remind us of tales where the hero dispatches the dragon to reclaim the gold. These stories remind us that something must come to an end in order to claim the prize. Campbell instructs that both the dragon and vitality are within. The lionhearted individual that kills the dragon slays the debilitating aspects of something like fear (the dragon inside), which restores their zeal for life (The pot of gold). Tolkien’s The Hobbit, is instructive of life’s journey of traversing adversity through the growth that comes from the death of the unsavoury parts of Bilbo. These stories resonate with our internal being because to evolve as far as we have, we engaged in the complete Cycle of Life.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/hercules-and-the-dragon-ladon--486177722280404397/
I have lived the Cycle of Life as an adventurer and as a vegetable gardener. In both contexts I now clearly see that vitality cannot exist without the end and decay of something. The gardener never puts organic materials in the landfill, they facilitate a process to help the waste become nutrients that are gifted back to the soil. This is alchemy. Vibrant tomatoes grow out of last season’s dead and composted garden waste. The compost has important nuance and wholeness that can never be replicated by chemical fertilizers. The same rules apply for the disasters we experience, as terrible as they can be, it is important to metabolize tragedy and capture lessons so that they become the basis for something life giving. This is the Cycle of Life contract. An exchange. A responsibility. This idea has saved my life and freed me from the desperate adversity tragedy brought.
Living through any catastrophe in western culture is profoundly dangerous. Our society has divorced itself from any notion of exchange that the idea of death imbues. We resist our own decay when we die with the use of toxic embalming agents, caskets, and concrete tombs. We have even stopped using the word funeral. Instead we ignore death all together with the phrase, “ A Celebration of life.”
Holding on, with an iron grip of resistance to the notion of death amplifies our experience of adversity. Wrapped with this mindset our strategies for managing ourselves in adverse situations loses all efficacy. The searing irony of being stuck so, often brings us to a place where we wish for death. During these times it is important recognize that the death we seek need NOT be literal. Rather we may ask: What personality aspect in me needs to die to make way for a new strategy?
We all wish a sense of connection with nature. We understand that there is wisdom in nature’s processes. Weaving the Cycle of Life, into our daily existence helps us traverse adversity, especially when we feel like we are at the end of our rope. Hard times are here for so many people around the globe these days. Difficulty calls for us to pull out the ancient wisdom that has served humanity with a time tested strategy to remain in accord with the laws of nature. By being in agreement with nature, we find our place in our lives, and on mother Earth. These are important strategies for the coming months, and years for us to practice. The question is, what cultural aspect needs to die, so we can create the New Earth? My answer to this question is, our comfort with pacifying lies. We need to experience the acute pain of truth, rather than the chronic pain of deception that we have endured for so long.
Ken Wylie
September 5th, 2023
In the coming weeks watch for my workshop on managing adversity with the cycle of life or contact me directly for private workshop bookings at ken@archetypal.ca