I was in Finland 6 or 7 years ago.
On holiday.
Away from the control freakery of my day-to-day.
Away from the environment where I tried to control my businesses and every one and every thing in it.
Instead, I had reluctantly handed myself over to the control freakery of the travel agent.
The travel agent was looking after things now.
The Agenda.
There was an ‘agenda’.
An agenda!
On a fucking holiday.
My worst nightmare, really.
Because I like to do what I like to do.
And this agenda included Husky Running.
Something that I had not even processed as a ‘thing’.
Husky Running.
What was the point?
Husky Running.
When my Husky Running time came – I went along.
I complied.
I became the passenger.
And it was transformative.
It is one of just a handful of things in my whole life that has changed me permanently.
Trust.
I was immediately subordinate to an established, complex team of beautiful, perfectly synchronised wild animals.
They just knew what to do.
They just knew who should do what.
They were ‘doing their thing’.
And it was one of the greatest privileges of my life.
To be looked after by animals in this way.
To let go.
And to trust.
The Passenger.
That day, I learned to be a passenger.
Properly.
The huskies just did what they did.
I had absolutely nothing at all to add.
In fact, if I had tried to add anything at all, the experience would immediately have become a lesser experience.
So I remained silent.
The passenger.
The Point.
And the point of this journey through the snow?
Was that it was just that.
A journey.
Every half second, because my senses were heightened, and because I was just experiencing instead of controlling, I noticed something amazing.
The 28 magically synchronised feet of 7 dogs.
The horizon.
The new, terrestrial clouds of powdery snow that the dogs made, to cool and freshen my face.
The trees.
The mixture of barks and squeaks and telepathy that fused the dogs together as one driving force.
All of this was new.
And beautiful.
And unforgettable.
And the only way I could enjoy the experience and the show to the maximum was to become a passenger.
Which was new for me.
I had to become a true spectator.
To forget my ego.
To lose my control freakery.
To control my fear of things going wrong.
And simply trust.
The Journey.
I try to remember this today.
To enjoy the journey.
And to be led by those that know much better than me.
In a way I never could.
And to leave them to do their thing.
