With aging, comes invisibility. You don’t even have to do anything for a cloak to descend on you; it muffles your voice and refracts light on your body so that you pass through public spaces with no one noticing. In an old folk’s home, the invisible therefore abound, though some shake off the obscurity to … Continue reading On Becoming Invisible
Over a couple of days, I reduced our online photo collection from 29,385 to 15,241. Talk about seeing your life flash before your eyes-well, flash isn’t really the right word but then neither is saunter. Mostly this was an enjoyable task, as I relived trips and hikes and social events and got ever more merciless … Continue reading Pika – you’ve probably been saying it wrong all this time
Today, the Lillooet river was choked with ice floes and the heron at one of the inflow channels looked very forlorn waiting for a feed of fish. I had no urge to rush to the edge as I had when I was a kid. We were warned early on that the river was unpredictable and … Continue reading River Dunk
Last year, my sister in law informed me that finding a dime in a random spot was a sign that a departed loved one was nearby and looking out for me. She said that when her sister had passed away, she began to find dimes everywhere-only dimes-not loose change as you might expect. Skeptically, I … Continue reading Finding Dimes
Usually, my imagination provides me with a ready source of entertainment but sometimes it interferes a little too much with reality. When I was a kid, I experienced this lesson a few times, fortunately with no long lasting repercussions. This is one of those memories: The summer sun was baking down and I scuffed my … Continue reading The Power of Imagination
About fourteen kilometres from Pemberton, heading south, lurks a boulder patch that is only partly visible from the road. There is a rock quarry there now and a gate prevents trespassers in vehicles but one fall day last year we stopped to see if the brushing under the hydro lines might yield some firewood. Since … Continue reading Giants
The shift to colder weather coincided with a super moon and with that added nighttime magic and daytime snappiness came lighter moods and extra motivation to get out and explore. Monday we chased the moon from one end of the valley to the other, trying for that shot where it lights up the snow as … Continue reading Moon Bloom?
In one of the holes of the cement abutment beside the bridge over the Lillooet River, on the road to the Hurley Pass, I placed a jar containing a pencil and a spiral notepad. Dad and I would park nearby, walk to the bridge, observe the height of the river using the measure attached … Continue reading Notebook
Some things are simply beautiful; others are beautifully simple. On a recent walk around One Mile, I had time to contemplate this concept. We are surrounded by so much natural beauty on such a grand scale in this valley that it takes some special circumstances to see the smaller details. The frequent rain storms of … Continue reading What the Rain Revealed
My friends and I were running through the mossy woods, trending up towards the paraglide launch and catching up on each other’s lives when the incline allowed. In the back of my mind was an image: a spiral of moss captured in ice, seemingly lit from within. I had been wondering for days how I … Continue reading Ice, moss and meditations on impermanence with Connie Sobchak
The Wellness Almanac 