Make Time to Walk

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. ~Steven Wright

I was born a walker. Growing up in a one car family that my father needed to get to work while living in the outskirts of town meant that if you wanted to do anything or go anywhere you relied on your feet. This was so ingrained that I did not bother get a drivers license until I was 25. When I moved to the city in my early adulthood, I relied on buses to transport me to work until a strike taught me that the hour and a half walk to and from was reasonable and pleasant, at least on the good weather days. For seven years, while living in the car-obsessed and sidewalk-phobic suburban USA, I slowly lost the habit, but I've been gaining it back, going on almost daily adventures of urban exploration.

It never ceases to amaze me how little many of my friends know of their own backyards, even when they have lived in the area all their lives. We have traded an adventurers' soul for the mundane, stress inducing car commute, even driving to the store a few blocks away. Reassessing my own life and stress, I came to the realization that I was a lot happier as a walker, in the fresh air, in nature, interacting with people, seeing the small little things that make city life or country living so pleasurable, and which often get missed in the car.

I'll share my favourite walks and memories in and around my current home of Toronto, as well as Halifax, Chicago and Paris. Take a stroll with me.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Breakup

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Dear Winter,

I really don't know any kinder, gentler way to break it to you so let me be blunt.  It's over.  I just can't see it working out anymore.  You have your thing and I have mine.  I have tried to live with who you are and what you do.  I have tried to love you just the way you are.  But I just can't do it anymore. Do you have to be so dark and gloomy?  Is it reasonable to delight in the one you love being curled in a corner, all SADD and blue?   In any relationship, there has to be a little bend, a little flexibility.  I have given myself over to you, thrown myself into your arms, dealt with your cold shoulders.  But like the good ship Enterprise, NC-1701, "I just canna take it anymore, Captain!".  You were all so seductive, soft and tempting at first and then once you had me, wham, you let it loose.  You have beaten me down with snow dumps and bitter cold, threatened me with massive icicles.  All the blankets, warm wooley socks and chocolate chili chai in the world have not sheltered me from your cold, bitter, icy heart. 

I made it clear we'd be "special friends" this year but I also made it clear that there would be an expiry date for our "friendship".  Spring has always meant more to my heart and I know she's coming, so you need to clear out before she moves in.  In case you didn't hear, the Spring Equinox was just a couple of days ago. And Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam both promised on your behalf that you'd be gone by now.  

I know what's going on, don't deny it.  Your little tantrum doesn't impress me much and it certainly isn't going to change the way I feel.  You have to accept the fact that we're through.  So go ahead, get it all out.  I'm patient, I can wait, but only for so long.  I'm sorry it had to be this way.  But I hope you know we'll always have January.  


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