Horseback Adventures, Alaska Big Game Hunting, Life in the Bush by Alaska Chick

Tough Lessons of 2011 Hunting with Alaska Chick

Tweet

 

~ I woke up this morning, still feeling exhausted. This waking also included impatience. Enough already! I love this world I am still fairly new to, and I miss it, I miss you all and I miss learning so much! We are back to fighting the band width, so I’ll be off-line in any case, so now I can just write.

“Be Who You Say You Are”

I would like to share with you, a sad understanding and acceptance to the world. Not, in a “I don’t care” attitude, but more of a “cowboy-up and “put up or shut up” attitude. Understanding, getting the answers, doesn’t always make life easier to live.

“All evil needs to flourish, is for good men to do nothing”

Being in the field this fall, non-stop, was a real test for me. Away from my children, away from the inspiration to improve and be a better friend, teacher and student of life, was for me another big step.

What I experienced was a dawning. A sad understanding that there are people that can be surrounded by all that is here, with us here waiting and ready to share it all, and still they can be blinded by their own issues and hang-ups.

Blinded to the point that they miss what can be taken away with them and lighten the load we all carry. So immersed in their own perceived self-importance, that they miss what the real gift is ~ the gift of opportunity. The opportunity to absorb all the life and space and beauty that surrounds you, here in Chisana.

Immersed to the point of disregard of the efforts, work and focus that goes into each individual client’s wishes and dream. Worse, the disregard of the majestic and precious animals hunted. The disregard of the State’s laws and regulations and the disregard of the safety and health of the horses that carry them.

So, the understanding and acceptance of the truth, for me, that  these people will find even us, so remote and away, and become a client to be treated with care and respect. (humphf.)
It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. A pit in my stomach. Dealing with this these last months, really drained me in so many ways. There is nothing else I wish to be doing and knowing this, I also needed to find a way to put it away.

The ugliness and pettiness added onto the difficult and physical strain of doing what we do, the lack of common courteously on top of everything else did what nothing else can. It made it difficult to move on to the next client with a clear head and fresh drive.

The solution? After I found it, it seemed almost too simple. I found my answer in a friend. Lori Gosselin’s new book, The Happy Place gave me the answer. Such a simple, straight forward and insightful sharing of part of Lori’s own experiences with making a difference in her own life.

It became obvious to me, after reading The Happy Place, that the real problem was my own. This certain type of client always left me feeling like I was nothing. I had no value, everything I did, all the effort, was for nothing, I was nothing and I wasn’t good enough.

Once I followed the steps and “owned” how I felt, it was as if the weight I had been carrying had been lifted and replaced with the knowledge and acceptance that as I know I did my best and worked very hard for these clients, as well as with the knowledge and acceptance that there are always going to be people who will need to belittle and blame others, it was time to move on to the next! (Thank you, Lori.)

I am, Alaska Chick.

“As you look, really look, and find no words; feeling both, your heart healing and filling to an inner bursting point and feeling that your soul has been laid open to the breeze and wind like a raw wound. This takes you beyond the physical, past the mental; this is the spiritual element. This is Chisana.”

My name is Amber-Lee Dibble and I am the Manager at Pioneer Outfitters. We are located in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve, our nation’s largest, most unexplored, unexploited and untouched National Park.

I am Mom, the Manager and the lead Guide of the Extreme Pro Team Guides. Born a Capricorn 1, Week of the Ruler, on the Day of The Indomitable One.

Pioneer Outfitters has been taking people into the wilderness of Alaska on horseback for Spiritual, Pleasure, Gold Panning, Glacier Exploring and Historic Trail Pack Trips, as well as Big Game Hunting and Survival & Guide Training since 1924. We, our family and our horses have always lived here year-round. As we make our life, we make our “living.”