People ask me; “Why do you do this?  What brought you to this place in your life of taking people on ExploreAlaska adventures?”  So many of you have asked these questions I decided to put my fingers to my computer keyboard and try to explain it.  (HINT: Brace yourself!)

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For me it is all about the human heart…or rather the brokenness of the human heart.  This affects the vast majority of people, and now with the covid lock downs it is fast becoming a major health crisis all over the world.

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The medical term is Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. The diagnosis was first introduced in 1991 by a Japanese scientist.  This drew attention from scientists in the West who later named the condition Broken Heart Syndrome. After the spread of COVID-19, the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in the general population rose significantly.  Broken Heart Syndrome is on the rise worldwide and has become a topic that is often mentioned in the media and discussed in the medical community.

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You see, your heart is central to all things in your life.  The Bible even talks about it. In fact, the heart is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other subject…by a very wide margin.  Your heart is the central theme of the Bible.  Here is but one example: "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."  Or from another translation:   “Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the well springs of life.”  Proverbs 4:23

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I know that some of you reading this are not interested in anything to do with the Bible and that is OK with me.  But even the most ardent atheist must raise an eyebrow to the fact that the heart (your heart) is the most talked about subject in the entire Bible!

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The Broken Heart:

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The title to my doctoral thesis was; “How Your Thoughts (Emotions) Relate To Your Health”.  So intellectually I know quite a lot about this subject. When I was in practice I dealt with lots of patients with broken hearts, and I have led men’s groups about healing their hearts.  (And no, I am not a psychiatrist nor am I a psychologist!)

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So just how does your heart get broken?  Well, it can be profoundly different for many people, but there are lots of ways that your heart can be broken.  Often times it is many small emotional wounds that lead up to a broken heart.  Other times it is one event that you might feel to be the most catastrophic ordeal you could ever endure.  Here is but a few of the big ones that I have seen: Broken or bad personal relationships, parents that might not have had your best interest in mind when you were a child, your career going south, a business partner taking advantage of you, your parents’ divorce, pouring your heart and soul into your business and it fails, the death of a loved one, the illness of someone close to you, covid lockdowns and all of the other stuff that goes along with that, never being able to attain your lifelong goals and dreams no matter how hard you tried, the stress of running your own business, PTSD, not liking your career but being bound and determined to gut it out for retirement, and just the stress of everyday living.  The list goes on and on and on.  And I know that most of you can identify with one or more of these heart breaking emotions.

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Healing Your Broken Heart:

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The next obvious question that you probably have right about now might go something like this:  “What does it take to heal my broken heart?” The answer to that is far too long and difficult to cover here.  It really needs to be discussed in person, without time constraints, around a campfire.  However, I will give you the much abbreviated answer put it in the simplest terms that I can: In my experience one of the very best was to heal your broken heart is to immerse yourself in the stillness and beauty found in nature’s wilderness.  And I do NOT mean your local city park, your back yard, or setting in a gazebo or at a picnic table at your local state park!  I mean REAL wilderness where, other than your guide, it is many miles to the next human being.  Where there is no traffic noise, no stop lights, no brake lights, no traffic jams, no cell phone signals, no Wi-Fi signal, no people noise, no air pollution, no TV, no internet, no phone or emails to answer, no horns honking, no subways to ride, no sirens blaring, and not a city light to be seen.   

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A wilderness where the only thing you hear is some birds singing, hear the sound of a flowing river or creek, feel and hear a slight breeze blowing on your face...a breeze of fresh CLEAN air that hasn’t been breathed already!  A place where you can see the horizon because there is no pollution, see all of the stars in the night sky because there is no light pollution, see wild animals in their natural habitat, catch a fish that is cooked over a camp fire for your dinner, experience the most beautiful landscape on planet earth, and get the best night’s sleep that you have ever had.  Then watch your heart soar and heal. 

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Are there places like that?!  YES, most certainly.  And that is where we fly you to on your private ExploreAlaska adventure.

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John Eldridge said it best;  “This is a war—a battle for the human heart. And we have reached the moment where we must find our courage and rise up to recover our hearts and fight for the hearts of others.”

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For me there is nothing more profoundly rewarding than to save the life of another person or to see the transformation that comes over someone when their heart is healed.  So I have entered the battle to help heal the hearts of others…like yours.  And that is why I do what I do.

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All profits go to an anti poaching and child rescue mission in Africa. 

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