“Love and loss,” he said, “are like a ship and the sea.
They rise together.
The more we love,
the more we have to lose.
But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love.
And what a sad world that would be.”
V.E. Schwab
I've been thinking about the nature of time lately. When I was a teenager, it seemed like it would take an eternity before I reached 30. At 30, I was so busy with farming and raising the kids that time came in day-sized chunks. Just get through this day. Somewhere in my late 50's, I felt like I had reached the top of the life mountain and I could see what was on the other side. Time became more valuable. Now, in my early 70's time is like gold. Today, as we wandered around one of our favourite Canadian cities, Sherbrooke, I reflected back on what we had done here in the past.
Walked the Lac des Nations boardwalk downtown, a 3.5 km loop.
Biked 35 km to and from North Hatley.
Biked on very hilly roads 20 km going north of the city.
What good times we'd had had! We loved every minute of our past times here. It was a bit sad that we weren't able to do them today. We felt the loss. But, we reluctantly embraced our new normal. This is what new normal looks like for us: Welcome to Domaine Howard.
Domaine Howard was sold to the city of Sherbrooke by the Howard family. They made their wealth in the lumber industry and over the years built a few impressive homes on the site. The city of Sherbrooke maintains the property now and it is free for all to enter. As Ted likes to say, he's visiting his tax dollars. This year Quebec will receive 28.5 billions in transfer payments.
How about that Teddy bear???
The picture below is for one person: Marga. You need this tree in your garden.
What a stately greenhouse. We took our time exploring the grounds. There was a cool breeze under the tall maples and tulip trees.
The things you see when you slow down and pay attention. Things like a gnome trying to look like my husband.
And, feeling things. Slowing down and feeling random gnome's beards along the way is a good grounding exercise. Time stands still.
Every so often we come across an item built like Ted would build it - strong and useful. He was very impressed with the city's work trucks today.
Sherbrooke is known for its topiary structures. I love the three-dimensionality of this scene.
I think they may be experimenting with embracing the realities of climate change. Plants growing on more arid soils. The jellyfish seems happy there.
Our new normal includes sitting on a lot of benches. On this bench, we figured out how they pick up their huge trash bins and dump them in the truck. They do recycling and garbage pickups different her than we do in Ontario.
I love how the mullions of the greenhouse in the background look like a sketch.
On another bench in front of a huge stone house and under breezy maple trees, we watched the odd person walk by with their dog or with a friend who isn't a dog.
This is another of the family's homes.
Our final bench came complete with motion and sound and scent - a premium spot.
motion: a fountain
sound: the soothing sound of water falling
scent: that beachy smell when you are around aerated water
I may just like our new normal.
Dancing Inside - Becky Hemsley
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass..”
Except that sometimes it is.
Sometimes you are waterlogged.
Waterlogged and wading through flooded waters.
And you are exhausted.
Sometimes you’ve had too much of the storm.
Because sometimes it has taken too much from you.
So you don’t have to dance in the rain if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to embrace it if you think it might drown you.
You can sit and read a book.
You can call a friend.
You can close your eyes and sleep.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.
It’s about figuring out the best way through it.
And sometimes that means facing it,
sometimes embracing it.
And sometimes that means
closing the curtains,
turning the music up,
and dancing inside instead.
Comments