Imagine trekking through the thick of the Northwoods during the height of Zagime (mosquito) season. For 80 days, you and 10 other Trainees have decided to live in the Wisconsin wilderness together, carrying nothing more than the bare essentials that can fit onto your pack frame. These 10 people, most of whom you’ve never met, are your community, your tribe, your circle. If one of you chooses not to do your part, or to not do it well, the circle struggles. If one person decides to indulge their negative emotions, the circle suffers.

Earlier this sun (day), the Guides visited camp and drew a map using only rocks, sticks, and brush, to show you and the other Trainees how to find your way through the Headwaters Wilderness to get to the next destination. You committed your assigned part of the map to memory, as did the other 10. Everyone will need to remember their part in order to get to the next camp without getting lost.

There are no watches, so you look at the position of the sun to determine the time of day. It appears to be midafternoon. You and the other Trainees have been walking since mid-morning. The air is now hot and heavy with humidity. Weighing your options, you decide it is better to endure the heat, along with wearing long sleeves and a head scarf, to help mitigate the bites from Zagime.

The Guides have instructed everyone to practice moving silently through the wilderness, to discover what it means to become invisible, to walk where there is no path without leaving a trace. You want to rest. However, resting would interrupt the flow of movement, and may prevent you and the others from arriving at the next camp before sunset. You know you can keep going, and so you do, because it’s not just about you anymore.

Somewhere in the midst of Zagime’s buzzing, the hot sun, the fatigue, and the hunger pangs, you begin to feel the flow of the other trainees—the circle—moving together as one organism. You catch a glimpse, a deeper understanding, of what it means to truly belong to a community, to do your part for the greater good, knowing that they also do their part for you. You relax into the feeling of the circle moving silently as one, like the wind flowing through the trees, leaving no trail.

The Guardian Intensive Training is the newest program at Teaching Drum Outdoor School. Inspiration for this program grew out of the Guardian Yearlong program, which you can read about in earlier posts and on the Guardian Yearlong webpage. The Guardian Intensive consists of 80 days of at home study and exercises, followed by 80 days of immersion training with other program participants in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

For the next year, we will be posting stories and highlights of the different groups as they go through their immersion experience. We will also be sharing the stories of Guardian Intensive graduates as they reflect on lessons learned with the benefit of hindsight. We welcome you to follow along and share this journey with us.