Robert Service ends his poem, The Spell of the Yukon, with this phrase:

It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease,
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.
~Robert Service

One day in late winter, I had a sudden desire to share more of the Yukon with the world, while also enriching my life. My day job can be hectic and stressful and ties me to my computer and desk chair for hours. What if I could find a way to force myself outside? What if I went into the woods and filmed a 15-minute video, a still camera view, where I had to stay totally quiet and calm, without a phone, without a computer, and just meditate in the space?

So I did it.

I went into the woods, hiked off the trail, through thigh deep snow, and sat on a log. I set up a GoPro to my right and my iPhone to my left and press record on both. And I sat there and listened. And didn’t move.

What happened? Well they were terrible. Nothing moves in winter. There were no birds. No wind. But I could hear some traffic in the distance, since I was still inside town limits in a park. I was ecstatic when a neighbour walked by with their dog in the distance. And then my cameras died because it was too cold. Take a watch; it’s so calm you’ll think it is paused:

Never one to be happy with mediocrity, I dug in to learn more about how I could improve!

Follow along with the YouTube channel and with this blog to see my progress, and to sit back and enjoy the land way up yonder!