It’s quite cool this morning, and it has got me thinking. I am married and not looking for another partner. I am 70 years old and I am grateful for having reached this milestone with good physical and mental health. It hasn’t always been this way – being in good physical and mental health. There was a time, a few decades, where my mental health challenged my very physical existence. Midlife can be a very trying time, especially for those…
Yesterday was a stormy day which dropped more than an inch of rain or about three centimetres for us here in the metric world. The country roads have turned into mud so that means no free-hiking for a few more days at the minimum. We’ll see what the future holds in terms of warmer temperatures, sunshine and precipitation. This photo shows a small break in the weather moments before another bout of rain. This morning I woke up at 4:30…
It has been a few days, busy days here on the Canadian prairies. Today was just about as busy as all the other days, but I somehow managed to organise my time to fit in another free hike. I left home just before noon and parked at my usual spot where I then began my hike. I was able to walk the first half kilometre without shorts before putting them back on as I neared the busy grid road that…
My wife was commenting about how I am shrinking in many areas whereas my stomach seems to be getting bigger. My body weight hasn’t changed, so it isn’t about my over-eating. Since my wife works in a nursing home taking care of seniors during their last years, she tells me it is a matter of getting older. It isn’t that I couldn’t become trimmer, eat less, and do all manner of gymnastics in hopes of looking fitter and younger. The…
On the Canadian prairies, it gets cold in the month of August, especially on those mornings on either side of a full moon. This morning’s temperature was 4 Celsius. As we sat watching dawn approach from our love seat, looking out at the prairie hills in the distant, we saw what looked like mist just at the base of the hills. It reminded both of us of the expression, “frost in low lying areas. Because it is still August, the…
It is good to be home after a flurry of book signings and visiting grandchildren. I got to enjoy sunrise and then meditation outdoors as I usually do when weather permits. After taking care of cleaning up the books and data, I decided I could go out for an eight kilometre walk, five of which I was able to do while clothing free. With the walk done and lunch completed, I began the task of cleaning up the crab apples…
It is my last day of this year’s book-signing tour. Once I finish at the next bookstore in the afternoon, I will make the five and a half hour drive to return home. I don’t care for driving in the dark, but the payoff of being able to sleep in my own bed beside my wife of 48 years more than makes up for it. Perhaps it is simply getting older and becoming seventy, buy I am finding that I…
The hardest part about being on a book-signing tour, aside from not being at home, is the waiting between events. I sleep less to begin with which adds a fair number of hours to the days. I wander more whether it be around the various guest houses or down different streets of each city. Intellectually I know that there are no changes to time which is recorded by clocks and watches. Yet, what it feels like is quite different. It…
I am now in Calgary and I have completed my first book-selling, book-signing event in this city. I rented another Airbnb bedroom in the city rather than a motel room. Originally it was because of costs, trying to find a way to come out at the end of such a tour having actually made a bit of money. Two years ago, I tried using my camping trailer to do the trip and found that the prices to rent a space…
Today, like most days, I am the first to awaken. I own most places during the faint light of the predawn. As such, I find myself unconstrained by my typical self-censored behaviour. I emerge, transparent and naked. The only rule I impose on myself is one of silence as if I am in a holy place. During these early hours I risk listening to my thoughts and the faint presences that move within me, those shadowy figures within my underworld….