The final “ceremony” where each got to share a word they picked.

This morning was our last in Yukon. After our breakfast, the Uncommon Journeys staff and the On the Tip of the Toes Foundation group got together for a special “ceremony”. A tradition the Foundation has kept on its previous 16 expeditions in over a decade.

This was a time for each of us to share our impressions of last week’s adventure. Bertrand, our child life specialist, calls it a rite of passage. Louise, from the Board of Directors of the Foundation, goes on to explain that “going through cancer is tough but with time it will make you realize that it has brought you great qualities of compassion, empathy and understanding of others’ pains and sorrows. The gained experience gives you values and strengths that bring you to a higher level.”

Discovering each and every one in the last seven days has been a roller coaster of emotions. Tension, rejection, bullying at times, but also courage, generosity, openness and purity, as Maryo so brightly said. All this in a surreal background of mountains, snow and man’s best friend, the dogs.

For an hour, everyone passed around Willow’s mushing harness, a very shy but cuddly dog. Harness in hand, one by one, we stated the word that best described the previous week and explained it. This is as intense as human nature gets.

The exercise gave us a chance to see everyone from a different angle. Barriers and façade suddenly fell apart. They were able to speak from the heart sometimes with so much emotion they had to stop for a tear. I have hardly lived such emotions with people I’ve just begun to care for. The words they chose speak for themselves:

Annick, 32 years old: challenge
Camille, 17: discovery
Rod, 52: inspiration
Kaitlin, 16: exhilarating
Émilie, 23: challenge
Marika, 16: Alibaba
Kim, 28: complexity
Dominic, 22: coming back!
Bertrand, 52: generosity
Louise, 55: gratitude
Héléna, 26: pride
Delson, 16: scared
Will, 24: bilingual!
Jocelyne, 27: gratitude
Kyla, 27: educational
Martin, 39: discovery
Serge, 19: awesome
Hilary, 19: lucky
Anthony, 17: perseverance
Mario, 17: purity
Kevin, 19: chance
Paul, 17: overwhelming