Once Around the Sun
584 million miles, 365.256 days, 52 essays, and two big changes coming to the "Little Dipper"
It has always been my belief that people will support the things they find value in. It has now been one year, one 584 million mile trip around the sun, since I began sharing the Little Dipper blog with you. Fifty-two installments published once a week for an entire year (a rate of consistency out-pacing 95% of Substack blogs). If you have found value in these essays and photographs and are not yet a paid subscriber, I am asking you now to support my work by upgrading to continue the journey.
If you’ve been aboard for the whole trip, you have stood with me under sky flickering with northern lights and come eye-to-eye with a black bear. You have shivered through a -12f night to watch moonlight glowing on the ice caves, felt wonder, awe, and the claw of fear rising as we slipped into the black waters in the predawn darkness to photograph caves. There have been essays on art and the art of seeing, on poetry as well as history and humor and home. There have been hermits, a busted prop, spooked otters, and mint juleps. We’ve traveled with photographers, a watercolor artist, with writers, a peace activist, and at least one dog (who ironically, does not like the water). “Stay, Finch, good boy.”
This blog was born out of a desire that I believe many of us in the modern world share - a desire to feel rooted in a place, part of it rather than “apart” from it. After decades as a travel writer skipping like a stone across the continents, I wanted to feel at home in this chosen landscape of red sandstone cliffs, the smell of white pine on the breezes, the dot-dash of islands on the horizon and the endless blue of the lake. We bought a boat, named it the “Little Dipper” and began to use it as a way to expand our own horizons. Many people asked what I was doing out there. Then they asked what was it like? And finally could they come along for a ride? The Little Dipper blog was born.
The core of the Little Dipper has always been found in that famous Marcel Proust quote, “the true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Through every one of the now 52 installments I have sought to do just that, to look at these islands and this lake, with “new eyes.” From the grand vistas to the smallest details, I fought against the blur of the familiar that sometimes comes over our vision when we are exposed over and over again to the same place. I tried, with each installment, with each trip, to look closer, look differently and look deeper.
Whether I’ve succeeded, I leave up to you as the reader. But I do know that through these words and photos, I have laid my heart bare — showing you the fear that swam beside me in the dark and my triumphs at creating a photograph that stirs the soul under the northern lights. You’ve seen my mistakes (remember the broken prop?) and my epiphanies — as we searched for the heart of the Apostle Islands, for meaning and beauty and adventure, along the way asking what it means to feel at “home” in a place. I put myself out there, heart and soul and body.
And now we have come full circle - one trip around the sun. The journey will continue but with two differences. First, with the completion of a year’s worth of essays and nearly 500 subscribers, it is time for the Little Dipper to transition to a paid subscription journal. There is, after all, gas to buy and repairs to be made (remember that busted prop?) But even more than that, I have always had faith that people will stand up and support the things they value. If you see value in this journey — these heartfelt words and stories and photographs — and are not yet a paid supporter, please join us.
If you are already a paid subscriber, you will continue to receive an essay every Wednesday morning plus a new “postcard” feature giving you quick one-photo stories (postcards) in between the essays when I stumble across a moment of beauty or meaning or humor that simply cannot wait until Wednesday. You will also have access to the full archive for rainy day binge reading. And, perhaps most of all, you will have my gratitude. As a paid subscriber, your support through this first year has meant the world to me, the shining light that kept me looking up.
If you have been a free subscriber or are new to this blog, there will be occasional essays to whet your appetite. In the meantime, the full archive will be open for another week and then a more limited selectionf. So, pick any of the 52 entries from the archive, sit down and read it. If you see something that catches your interest, some glimpse to warrant supporting my work with a paid subscription, click to continue the journey for just $5/month or $50 a year.
Or, listen. Yes, listen. In the second big change, I am returning to my storytelling roots by adding an “audio” version of some of my essays, reading aloud as if we are sharing a campfire or sitting on the bow of the Little Dipper sipping coffee as the sun comes up. I hope this new feature will add value to becoming a paid subscriber to this blog. To experience the audio version of one of my most popular essays, click below:
There is much yet to explore, more beauty to discover, more stories to tell and more wildlife to encounter as we sink deeper into these islands and continue our quest to define what it means to be at “home” in a place. The Little Dipper is just getting underway. All aboard.
Let’s continue the journey, together.
— Jeff Rennicke (all photography by the author unless otherwise noted). Prints are available).