Go Buy a Happiness Counter
It started with sore feet. Of course it did. My poor feet have carried me everywhere.
Five of us plus Dax went backpacking into the Emigrant Wilderness in California - Kjell, Cali, Lexie, Bettina and me. Let's just say it was obvious who was in their sixties and who was in their early twenties. And who was thirty-one- Oh yeah- the F-35 Fighter Pilot.
It had been ages since I'd carried a pack that far. I ate out of a pouch for every single meal. I didn’t bring enough lunch snacks, which I thought about often. My feet had a great deal to say by day two and I spent a fair amount of the trip wondering why on earth I had packed so much, given that I am supposedly a person who knows how to do this. Thank god for a sense of humour!
I guess that's what a shakedown hike is for.
The Fab five
But it did exactly what I needed it to do. It started the engine. Somewhere in among the campfires and the swimming and the fishing and the conversations that go on longer than they would anywhere else, I could suddenly see next summer - the Embrace the Planet Project's big walk, starting early August 2027, Cape Scott to Victoria. Not as an idea on a page. As something my body is going to have to actually be ready for. “Oye” or as the Norwegians say “Uff da!”
I came home excited about the training ahead. I know. I heard it too. No pain, no gain, right?
And here's the thing about those younger souls we walked in with. They are already so successful, and not because of anything on a résumé. They're smart. They care. They listen. They are curious and they are interested in service. And it wasn't a one-way street - we wanted to hang out with them, and, remarkably, they wanted to hang out with us.
One thing to ponder is how much we need time and space with people younger than us, and older than us. Not around them. With them. Listening. Just be-ing. It is a tank/soul filler in the highest most joyful regard.
A sweet girl in Oregon
We drove to California, which meant on the way home we got to stop and visit my friend and her daughter in Oregon.
That visit was permission to eat too much chocolate. It was being handed an original piece of artwork, which I now own. It was laughing. It was jumping up on a bed, an activity I fully endorse. It was that particular young joy that only a girl like her can bring into a room, and I had the good sense to just stand there in it for a while. A visit much to short but a return on the horizon a must.
So much joy in one human- is it possible? YUP-Thanks to Momma Erin!
Svalbard, with 25 older kids
Then it was north to Svalbard with Wild Women Expeditions. Twenty-five of them. And I mean this with total affection: they were older kids. Irrespective of what our age is, something happens when a group of people, especially women, feel joy in the same place at the same time and everybody quietly knows that it's maybe been a while. Moments like that bring us together as people.
Svalbard, June. Some of the best humans I know.
Norway: a brand-new person celebrated during the World Cup!
After Svalbard I went to Trondheim Norway to see my aunt Doris, my cousin Andre and my second cousins - and to meet a brand-new baby. I sniffed that little head. I held her for considerably longer than my back had agreed to. It was a reminder of how strong mothers are, physically and mentally, in ways we don't talk about nearly enough.
I walked with her. I watched her stand longer than she had ever stood, which we all treated as a major international news event. And I watched the different ways all the adults moved around her, and you could just feel the deep, deep love in that room. It's visceral. It's provocative. It's one of the most powerful things there is.
Tacoma: meeting Alex
Then there was meeting Alex. Strong. Curious. Kind. Helpful. Smart. And very, very funny.
What I loved almost as much was getting to see a different part of my friends - them as parents, and what an incredible job they've done. That boy is lucky to grow up with those two. It's a beautiful thing to watch.
Tacoma. Alex
Alaska, the Aleutians, and four kids on board
What an amazing summer it has been and its not over. There were eighteen days to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands with HX Expeditions, which I've only just come back from.
I didn't worry about the length of the trip at all, though it had been a while since I'd been on a voyage that long. As I always do, I looked forward to my early morning routine, and then I let the rest of the day unfold however it wanted to and showed up as much as I could. That's the whole strategy. It has never let me down.
There were four youth on board.The oldest was Michael, fourteen, engaged and excitable and absolutely luminous whenever the subject turned to mountaineering and climbing. I'm fairly certain he has already summited a great many peaks in his mind. He just has to go and live them. One morning he was standing out on deck with almost nobody around and he said, “all I want to do is be outside.” .
Then I met his little brother, Emerson. I almost have no words for that little man. In all my years I have never met such an old young soul. He's eight, and he will remind you- promptly- that he is almost nine.
In every single presentation I sat in where he was in the room, he had questions. Real ones. The questions plenty of adults were thinking and never asked. His mind was working the entire time; you could see it happening behind his eyes. His eyes and his smile pulled everybody in, and he lit up the room - not only because he was playful and fun, but because he always had so much to share and you genuinely couldn't wait to hear what was coming next.
I was so inspired by him I created an award ‘ By Order of TheTufted Puffin ” awarded for extraordinary curiosity at sea. The kind of Explorer I always want to know, understand and support!!!
And then there were the two girls. One from the Netherlands, one from the US. They had never met before the trip. To watch them, you would have thought they'd been friends for years. Which got me thinking about all the layers we build around ourselves as adults, and how much work it takes to peel enough of them back to let anybody actually know us. Those two managed it in about a day and a half.
That's a big part of why I keep going on expedition voyages to these remote, awe-inspiring places. I've seen it consistently, and the consistency just keeps getting deeper: these places bring out the play in people. They bring out the best in us. Mostly.
I always find myself drawn to the ones whose energy wants to be shared. I meet them right there in that space and I listen to their stories, because I love knowing what it was that made them choose this particular trip. The answers are all over the map, every time.
But here's what I found on this trip to Alaska with HX, and what I saw travelling with the Wild Women team in Svalbard, and it's the same thing: we need to hold space for deeper, more meaningful conversations with each other.
That's why I travel. And if I can ever spark a new thought or a new idea in someone, then I'll just keep doing it.
Seven exclamation marks
There's a note on my fridge right now, in case I ever forget the play and the joy part. It came from a sweet ten-year-old on the HX Alaska trip, and it goes like this:
“Dear Sunniva — You are so nice and kind and strong and I will miss you!!!!!!!! I also want to try to do the walk with you and Sylvia on Vancouver Island. Hopefully see you then!!!” Olive the awesome! Seven exclamation marks. I counted. Twice.
I'd already met her dad, who was travelling with her. You could feel the love between them, and the care and time and energy he gave her, and how gentle he was with her. And when that note arrived, I thought: good job, Papa. She already knows she is awesome.
3,340
One more thing about Norway. While I was there I got to meet Nuno in person - one of the two partners behind Walking Mentorship, along with João. He'd just come off five days on St. Olav's Way up near Trondheim. They run walking pilgrimages all over the world, and I was on their podcast a while back.
Nuno gave me a counter. The kind a bus driver holds in his hand, clicking passengers as they board.
They use theirs on their pilgrimages, but for something entirely different. Every time there's a moment of joy, or happiness, or awe -something they really don't want to forget, and know that they won't - they click it.
Mine has registered pretty high.
! 3,340 and counting. A lot of them from Alaska.
So here is my formal recommendation for the rest of your summer: go out and buy yourself a happiness counter. I'm sure every hardware store has one. Or any supply store. It costs almost nothing and it will make you completely insufferable in the best possible way. Then start clicking………….
Who I travel with, and why it matters
I only travel with organizations I really support. I think about Old Harbor. That was the first time an operator came into that community driven by the community's objectives, and not the other way around. It's a different way of doing this, and it's the right one. We are never going to stop travelling. So our decisions about who we go with and how those companies show up for the communities they visit - matter enormously.
I'll keep going as long as I can keep bringing back something meaningful. Something that helps all of us wake up a little bit more and find a joy, or a passionate interest, that has something to do with people, or our ocean, or our land, or the other species we share this place with.
We really do need it to be all hands on deck. And it's not rocket science. So many of the people I know are already doing big, bold things - and every single one of you reading this can influence someone else. These are the three I stand behind:
Wild Women Expeditions stands for reciprocity. Women helping women. Women supporting each other and holding space for us to feel our own awesomeness - and supporting women in remote corners of the world with far less access than we have.
HX Expeditions keeps working to inspire engagement and action through their citizen science programs and their enormous body of educational content. And they take seriously the part most operators skip entirely: what happens afterwards. Enhancing the experience on board and once guests get home, so there's engagement and integration rather than just a photo album. They are a forward-thinking company with their heart, their mind and their business in the right place, doing the right thing.
The Transformational Travel Institute works on the piece underneath all of it - how travel actually changes a person, and what it takes to design for that on purpose. The inner journey alongside the outer one. I sit on the board because I believe that's where the real leverage is.
Enjoy the rest of your summer. Click the counter. Go find that inner child.
x Sunniva.
p.s You matter more than you think ! (borrowed from Karen O’Brian)
The Vancouver Island walk begins August 2027 — 800 kilometres from Cape Scott to Victoria. If you'd like to follow along, get the field notes, and hear when there's a way to be part of it, sign up below.
• Walking Mentorship — www.walkingmentorship.com (and the podcast episode I was on: (LINK)
