Pleasure Island

Just in case you were wondering: Canada is still rocking my party (as Felicia would say). We just got back from a three hour hike in the woods, soaking in the silence and the beautiful greenery. We walked by a lake adorned with lily pads and dragon flies, and then continued on through fields of wild glowers. We've seen bald eagles and swallows and deer and bunnies and snakes--OH MY! I forgot, being a city girl and all, how much I love nature, how much it can be so nourishing and quiet and needed. I don't remember the last time I stood among trees with no sound of humans murmuring in the distance. As we were walking, Pam suddenly said, "Stop. Listen!" And Graham, Pam, and I stood listening to nothing but the branches above us creeking like old bones. It reminded me to take a deep breath and just BREATHE.

I think I spend half my life grieving over the places I have just left, and the other half grieving the places I will be leaving. Before we left, and through the first day, I worried over our kitties still at home. I was anxious to know that our housesitter was there and caring for them. It was hard to completely relax. Now that I am two days in, knowing that the cats are with good company, I feel free to fall deep into this place and I am already sad about the day we will leave here. I just want to TAKE IT ALL IN, and NEVER LET IT GO. Sometimes pleasure is so pleasurable, I forget that I will have pleasure again, eslewhere. I am having SO MUCH PLEASURE right now, today, and I don't want to miss a thing. Of course, worrying about pleasure going away sure is a DRAG and then the pleausre is hampered. Egads! Geez, just stop and feel the pleasure already! OKAY! I WILL!

I'm off to do some much needed drawing and writing out by Pam's graden I think--something to sew me fully to the pleasure of this place and the time I am having RIGHT NOW. Tomorrow we go to Victoria to see an old friend of mine and to explore, and later we might go down to the shore to pick up shells and smell the sea. The pleasure is all mine.