Sunny Sunday in New Brunswick

We motorcycled through a fabulous sunny Sunday afternoon, starting from Riverview, through Scoudouc, travelling up the Acadian Coast, then back via the Old Shediac Road.

 
It is a beautiful drive along the coastline of New Brunswick, and was a perfect day for the bike—cloudless skies, warm and breezy, with a stop at Grande-Digue for ice-cream!

The storm surge damage of last winter and this spring is painfully apparent.  Half of the roadway is washed away in places along the coast.  Many homes and cottages, now much nearer the water than they want to be, are posted “For Sale.”

Tons and tons of newly dropped grindstone rock are piled along the ravaged coast, to create protective breakwaters.  Beaches have been decimated or have disappeared.  The coastline has drawn back and is changed completely.

Still, life goes on!  We drove by cars parked at the edges of steep craters gouged by the water, where there used to be gently sloping beach fronts.  People were helping each other down over the huge grindstones, handing off coolers and small children to reach the beach.  Young couples, singles and families, most of them sun burnt, were labouring to return over the massive rocks carrying empty picnic baskets, wet towels and blankets.  All looked contented and happy.

Enjoyment of the gorgeous day happened regardless of impediments on the beaches.  Clearly the warm waters and the glittering sands are still delightful and alluring, providing a warm day’s play and relaxation.

I couldn’t take any photographs of the road work or restoration or beaches, as I didn’t bring my camera along.  Jostling in the side-bags of the Harley wouldn’t have done it any good.  There were spots on the rough roads that didn’t do me any good!

We did enjoy the day and the drive and each other’s company and the ice cream…very much.  Despite the rough spots, it truly is a scenic coastline!

Death Called We Spoke

Sunrise April 11, 2011

It’s been a year since I nearly died.

So close, the doctor told me later, that a few more hours without medical attention and I would have been gone.

But, I didn’t go.

Death beckoned.  Made very appealing offers: peacefulness, freedom from pain, and shedding my sick physical body.  It was tempting, the lightness, the cessation of incredible pain, the floating free. 

I remember the Chief of Emergency shouting into my face, “You, my dear, are a medical emergency.  Stay awake.  Stay with us.”  I remember thinking, “Please, let me sleep.  Don’t yell.  Please, just let me rest.  Let me leave this pain and this heaviness and this fever.  Please…”

I’m still here a year later, reflecting on what I’ve learned from this extended illness, the stabilization period, the serious surgery and the oh, so slow, struggle through recovery.  Death altered my life.

Averting an abrupt end intensified the brevity and the fragility of my life and the necessity of doing what I want now, not next week, not next month, not next year.  Now…now…now.

I could create a list of what I want to do before I die permanently; feels like a gigantic “To Do” list, almost task-like, useless.  Now, I am simply living each day as it comes.  I am more patient, less angry, more loving and less judgemental.

Now, I write every day, and we bought a used Harley.  Strange combination of lifestyle changes?  Gary accompanied me through this experience; we are both acutely aware of the evanescence of our lives and of the fleetness of time for doing what we most desire.

I write; he rides.  When I buy a helmet, we’ll both ride and I’ll still write every day.

Not to say that one shouldn’t look ahead to the future and save and plan and prepare; but what good is that if one never gets to the future?  I’m simply saying that I’m grateful to be alive now and am living more and more in the present moment.

Death called.  We spoke.  I declined.

I’ll keep you posted.

Blue Skies and Riding the Harley

The color of the springtime is in the flowers,
the color of the winter is in the imagination.

~ Terri Guillemets

Winter is almost gone!  Still, there are days when I wake to massive snow flakes floating, drifting, riding currents of air.   And to soiled snow banks breathing curtains of fog, but winter is almost gone.

Spring surges through my eager veins, swelling my energies and leaving me breathless, impatient for balmier weather and for bright flowers.

Gary is impatient too.  All winter, his imagination has germinated longings for the colors of springtime, but not of flowers; he dreams of crystal blue spring skies and of his pearl blue Harley.

Finally today, the roads were dry enough for him to go out for a short drive around the neighbourhood on his motorcycle.  He is so happy on the Harley!

And, this means that winter is almost…gone.

The photo was taken last Fall, 2010.  It is mine.