Moments — A meaningful walk

It was a beautiful autumn day and much warmer than it should have been for this time of year. It was on this day I walked ten kilometres with a good friend of mine, and if I was to guess, about 150 people joined us — some rode bicycles, some ran, and others walked. Being a last minute decision on my part I didn't have the proper shoes with me, but a little discomfort was no reason not to participate.

Thirty-seven years before, a young man who had lost one of his legs to osteosarcoma started to run — over 143 days he would run 5,373 kilometres before the disease that eventually took his life forced him to stop.

This was my friend's thirty-sixth Terry Fox Run and it was a privilege to join him this year. We had a chance to catch up, talk about how cancer has touched our lives, enjoy the richness of the local community, and enjoy something as simple as a walk. 

An opportunity to reflect on the roads we've travelled — and with a little luck, will continue to travel.

iamgpe

Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox

Moments — lightning and thunder.

The rain pounded on the canvas roof —  for an instant the room was bright as day, faded to night, and a crash of thunder followed. Whether it was the pounding rain or the thunder that woke me I could not say but I lay there and listened to something that was so much bigger than me.

Brightness fades to dark. One thousand and one, one thousand and two — CRASH.

Sometimes the thunder would sound like the crack of a giant whip and other times it simply rolled on, and on, and on. And as I played this game the rain continued pounding.

There was a moment when something primal escaped and I admit I felt fear — the idea of being caught outside in the dark and surrounded by something enormous and powerful; the only option was to stand your ground and face whatever was out there. When my daughter was little (and afraid of thunderstorms) we used to sit outside on the porch and watch the rain and lightning, and listen to the thunder crash around us. I would smile and tell her that when you hear the thunder it was god's way of saying that you hadn't been hit by the lightning. As I remember it, I found it funnier than she did.

I could not help but smile at the memory, pulled the covers up a little further, and listened to the rain pound as I fell back to sleep.

iamgpe

PS : I did spend a fair bit of time explaining to my daughter what to do if she was caught in a thunderstorm, that she shouldn't take shelter under a tree, and that lightening was the real concern — because I actually do know what causes the thunder.

Moments — friendship

"Would you like another Manhattan?"

"Yes. Could you put less sweet vermouth and bitters in it"

"So you would like a glass of bourbon?"

"Yes."

The raft was much heavier then we thought, but not so heavy we couldn't get it into the water; the log we used to move it along helped. Discussions of water temperature, wind direction, water depth, and novel ideas to float the raft out to where it needed to be anchored took us there in only three attempts. With two of us in the water and two on the raft we ultimately attached the raft to the chain, and anchored it in place. 

With this success we celebrated the rest of our cottage weekend playing in the water as if we were young boys.

iamgpe