Ep 180 Contemplative Canoe Trips with Becca Langhough

Today we are joined by spiritual guide and avid paddler,  Becca Langhough.  Learn how she combined her love for canoeing, spiritual direction and outdoor adventure. 

Additional Resources:

becca55nb@gmail.com

Transcript

Becca Interview

[00:00:00] Christina: Hello, it's great to be with you. Today, I am grateful to introduce Becca Langehau to the podcast. Becca is a spiritual guide who is a Who has combined her love of canoeing and outdoor adventure with the contemplative to this end.

She leads summer canoe trips that weave in daily canoeing and camping alongside spiritual reflection. And so we thought this would be a fun podcast as it's a holiday week here in the USA and the height of summer when many of us are having our own outdoor adventures. So Belka, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks. I'm excited to be here. So I'm guessing many of us might not pair canoeing and contemplative in the same sentence. I remember when you first told me, I thought, how fascinating. And so I wonder if you can give us a little background as to how you came to combine those two loves of yours. 

[00:00:47] Becca: Sure. I was about 14 years old when we went on, I went on my first canoe trip through my church youth group, and we went to a Lutheran Bible camp in northern Minnesota, and I knew nothing about what I was getting into other than my dad said, you're going to love it.

It's fun. But I hadn't really done that kind of camping before. Like you load everything in your backpacks and you put it in a canoe and that's all you have for the week. You carry it from lake to lake. And it was because it was a Lutheran Bible camp, we also had some daily reflections and things like that.

And I just loved it, even though the mosquitoes were like, I had a hundred bites by the end of the first portage. And but I. I loved it, and I found myself I found myself feeling like I was home in a place I'd never been before, and I just wanted more of it. So I got to go back again when I was 17 with my youth group, and that time we had a female guide.

And I remember this one day, she was reading her devotions to us, and I had this, I heard it or felt it, just this like big knowing, this invitation, Becca you can do this, you need to do this, guide trips. And so then I got to guide trips when I was just out of college. And I've, I still love canoeing.

And I love the contemplative part because it brings us Yeah it's, there's so many invitations.

[00:02:17] Chris: Thank you for sharing sort of your origin story, Becca. And I'm wondering what might one experience on one of your canoe trips that you combine contemplative and the outdoor canoeing, what would one experience? 

[00:02:34] Becca: Thanks for that, Chris. I'm a practical level. What I do is Kind of guide people through the process of what do you need to bring to be as comfortable as possible on a canoe trip?

So I've got a really extensive Packing list and one of the key items on it though is a beginner's mindset so what I tell people how about what quantity to bring an infinite amount of beginner's mindset because canoe trips are unpredictable And so I help them get all their gear together, and I invite them as part of the trip, we do a group Zoom call, and we talk through all the logistics, and I invite them to share with each other something they're excited about, and something that makes them nervous, so everybody has this sense that they're nervous about.

We all do this with a little trepidation, but I like to talk about it. If it's a yes for you to be on this trip, the yes is enough, and the resistance or the fears, those are invitations. So that's how we start, even in the Zoom call, to weave in the spiritual and the contemplative, is to let ourselves be vulnerable and curious about those things that make us uncomfortable.

[00:03:45] Christina: Becca, I wonder, maybe, can you just take a minute to share what are some of the hesitations? I'm curious to hear since you've done this several times, what typically are people excited about and what are some of the hesitations people have? 

[00:03:55] Becca: Oh, 

[00:03:55] Christina: that's great, 

[00:03:56] Becca: Christina.

People are usually excited to see, because nature the Boundary Waters is glorious. It's like paddling through paradise and you can see bear and moose and eagles and you can see otters and deer and waterfalls and you know just it's and loons oh my gosh when and northern lights and for me even I love the thunderstorms because there's something extraordinary about a thunderstorm that comes there's the buildup before it, and then there's the storm, and then there's this nature sings after a storm that's so delightful.

And so that you get all of that and people are excited, people are less excited about storms generally, but the wildlife and some people are super excited for the exercise aspect of it. But a lot of those same things that they're excited about, they're nervous about. None of us want a bear to come steal our food.

None of us want mosquito bites. Another thing that can be a little trepidatious for folks is in the Boundary Waters, the bathrooms are literally outhouses without walls. So you're You're communing with nature in a very interesting way. And that can be nerve wracking. It can be uncomfortable.

And then there are other things like, what if the people in my tent snore? So earplugs are definitely on my camping list. And, or what if, a lot of times the question is what if I'm not enough? What if I'm not strong enough? What if I can't paddle hard enough? What if I can't? And that's one of the places where I come back to, if it was a yes for you to be here, that is enough.

And whatever you can carry, that is enough. You don't have to do it like everybody else. You do it like you. 

[00:05:41] Christina: That's beautiful.

[00:05:43] Chris: Yes, that is beautiful. And I love I love that invitation of if you belong on the trip that's enough. And I was actually reminded of a story. You're talking about the outhouses that have no walls. And I was talking to someone that had been to the boundary waters and we were actually talking about the question of what is one of the experiences of you feeling most loved by God or the divine and he mentioned having to go to the bathroom at night and sitting on the outhouse that doesn't have walls and the stars and the skies were so glorious.

And he didn't feel like he was. Just a tiny speck. It actually felt he was part of something greater and feeling this overwhelming sense of love by God. So I appreciate you, sharing some of the trepidations and I think a question that I have for you, , Becca. I know you like to draw on the idea of a canoe trip as a metaphor for life. And, interesting enough in my spiritual direction training program, one of the images that we have for spiritual direction is that spiritual direction is like being in a boat with someone. And, the temptation is to think that we're helping them.

Navigate where they're at. But I've heard that, we're not navigating. We're just looking with them along the way, but maybe you can say more about what you mean personally, as you're thinking about being on the water and this idea of life being like a canoe trip. 

[00:07:24] Becca: Yeah, that's, that's a fun invitation.

So when I was younger, I would look at the adults and I would think, oh my gosh, they've got it all figured out. And when I get there, everything's going to be smooth sailing. And then the older I got, the more I was like maybe when I'm a little bit past that age, like pretty soon I'm going to have it.

Figured out and it's going to be smooth sailing. And then I realized that life is just a constant flow of changing weather. And, on canoe trips, you're paying attention to the weather, or at least I am, because I prefer if a storm is coming to be able to get off the water. I I've been paddling down a lake with campers before when I noticed somebody's hair is standing on end, and I'm like, Oh, we got some lightning coming.

Let's get off the water here. Keeping an eye on the weather, but life has this flow of changing weather, getting going. Kids used to ask me, Becca, are we lost? And I would say, no, we're not lost, but we are slightly misplaced. Sometimes we get slightly misplaced on our journey. The portages on these trips can be, they can be really easy.

You just pick stuff up and go across. Some of them can be medium, you break a sweat. And some of them, They can be a mile and a half long. The portage can disappear in the middle of the woods. And You can think, oh my gosh, is this ever going to end? We have chapters in our lives that are like that too.

And, yeah, so there's all kinds of things like that come up on a canoe trip. Beaver dams that are super big like all these different things can come up, and we can either face them oh my gosh, this is awful, and I'm going to sit down and do nothing, or, What's possible now. Can we, so that's how I see life a lot like a canoe trip.

[00:09:11] Christina: Yeah. I really appreciate those analogies and it makes me wonder like after one goes through, cause it does sound like you're really coming to the edge of yourself and what's maybe possible. And I'm imagining having such moments of Aha, awakenings also struggle, all of that. So I'm curious, like kind of post trip, what are some of the things that you're noticing through your participation or from yourself?

Yeah, 

[00:09:34] Becca: that's a great question. One of the things I noticed In all of the people who most, the people I've talked to is a new level of self compassion. Because that's one thing I really love to invite people to, circling back to that idea of I'm not enough. I think we live in a society where we're often, there's so many messages of how we need to be more than we are.

We're not enough, we're not enough, but the truth is we're loved. just the way we are. And when we can learn to offer ourselves that kind of self compassion, it shifts how we engage with everything. And so that's actually, people don't necessarily name it as self compassion, but they all have talked about ways they felt freer to try new things or to be present differently in what they're doing as a result of being on the canoe trip.

They've talked about feeling more grounded, more whole. More open to possibility things like that.

[00:10:33] Chris: Yeah, I would imagine Becca that most people maybe in our Western context have never experienced anything like being caught in a storm and sort of the. Vulnerability, not being in control. What are some of the aftermaths that you've experienced of seeing people being caught in situations and circumstances that they can't control?

What are some of the ways forward that you've seen people take? 

[00:11:05] Becca: Are you speaking canoe trip wise or life wise? 

[00:11:08] Chris: Both. 

[00:11:09] Becca: Both. Canoe trip wise, I'll share The first trip I guided was my fourth trip ever, and I had this group of middle schoolers from DeKalb, Illinois. It was right after I was fresh out of college 22, thinking I was ready to take on the world.

And Our last night out, we had a massive thunderstorm whip through the camp, and the shortish version of it was, the canoes started to fly through the camp, so I went and pushed those down, the campers were all in their, the two tents, and as I sat on the canoes, so that they wouldn't fly through camp, that's how big the wind was, the tents started falling, And so the campers all came out, including the, there was an adult pastor in the group they, so they were all hanging on to the tents and getting whipped back and forth.

And then I heard this crack and I looked up and I could see a tree falling behind, like a massive pine tree falling behind one of the tents. And I tried yelling, but the wind was so loud. They couldn't hear me and I watched the tree campers and it came down and one giant branch came down in the middle of the tent and it didn't touch any of the five people who were standing there holding on to the tent and that happened to be the boys and the pastor.

And so that I'm like, I had them all come over and sit with me on the canoes as the rest of the wind blew through. And it only lasted 10 minutes, maybe this howling tumultuous thing. And then as we sat there, you could feel how they all saw each other differently and how they all felt.

They talked about it. They talked about this. sense of presence and acceptance, and including the pastor, they ended up telling him things like, we thought you were a really annoying old dude who made us do stuff we didn't want to do, and now we see you're just like us, and we're, It was scary, and I was profoundly grateful they didn't get hurt.

But it shifted those kids in a really amazing way. That's a canoe trip story. But a life story. The people who went on one of my trips recently got laid off. And we've been talking about that experience. And, Their approach has just been, yeah, this is hard and this is scary, but I'm strong and I can get through this, and I'm inviting the universe to just show me how to get going, how to keep moving forward.

I just have to do one step at a time. And and that person said, a lot of that feeling comes from how That canoe trip helped me realize how strong I am and how I'm not alone. Like just all these things that were, I don't remember exactly what they said, but it was this essence of the trip gave them something that they've carried with them.

[00:13:58] Christina: That's so inspiring. Thank you for sharing these stories. Becca, if someone's interested in learning more, connecting with you about the trips, what's the best way that they can connect with you? 

[00:14:07] Becca: Probably the easiest way is through my spiritual direction email, which is just beccalanghou l a n g h o u g h at gmail.

com 

[00:14:17] Christina: we'll put that into the show notes. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing just the contemplative canoeing and expanding our imaginations today. 

[00:14:25] Becca: Thank you. 

[00:14:26] Christina: And now is the part of the podcast where we talk about what we are into. So what are we into my friends?

[00:14:38] Chris: I I've shared before that I'm into bird calls and bird sounds, but I'm going to get a little bit more specific. We have a tree that's in our yard that was struck by lightning and had some wind devastated. And so it's seen its last, fruiting last spring, but I didn't have the heart to take it down because there was a squirrel or a chipmunk sort of living in the base of it in the bottom.

And so the kids liked looking at the squirrel. But this spring two red bellied woodpeckers have made their home in this tree. And I don't know if anyone has ever seen it. Heard the sound and I'll play the sound. I recorded it on my phone that a red belly woodpecker pecker makes, but it has a really fun sort of trill. And so I have been waking up early in the morning and sitting out on my deck and listening to the red belly woodpeckers, just sing their song and come to find out They've made a home in that tree and they have eggs that are just about to hatch. So I have been into red bellied woodpeckers.

[00:16:01] Christina: Very fun. I am into flowy summer dresses. Tis the season for all the fun summer dresses. And I just ordered another one on Amazon that I'm excited about. So that is what I am into.

[00:16:12] Becca: Let's see. What am I into? I am into it's, I like to play Ultimate Frisbee, and that's starting up really soon. And I play on a team, our team name is the Octicorns, and we, which is named after a children's book, and we don't take ourselves too seriously, and we have a lot of fun chasing frisbees.

Nice. 

[00:16:34] Christina: Thank you so much for joining us, and until next time, make it a great week.