In spite of not really leaving the house on the beach, we saw so very much. There were bald eagles diving and fishing, seals popping their heads out of the bay, hummingbirds on shore. My plan had originally been to return to Vancouver today, but Michelle's family decided to stay an extra day in Lund, and invited me to stay with them! It's paradise here. You've got the ocean a step away, and everything else you'd need all around you.
Mary's got a pretty excellent garden happening, mostly in pots all around the property. We had some fresh parsley from it over dinner, as well as some yellow plums she'd grown. Mary has lived all over Canada, and so I sat down with her to find out what her perspective could lend to my questions about our country.
She had a lot to say, which was refreshing, and raised some interesting thoughts about what it meant to be proud, and the relationship between success and happiness...something I struggle with a lot. She had many of the same issues with it that I have, and yet is working toward finding where the balance is between the two. Are they the same thing? It depends on your definition of success, I think.
Some friends of Mary's came over who are naturalists and divers, and showed us a video they'd put together to help protect species of turtles in and around BC. It's part of a widespread campaign to build in basking room for these turtles into habitat, so their reproductive habits are a little better accommodated in spite of all the development around the area. Terry, who shot much of the video, refers to himself as an "Amphibiographer". I liked that.
The amphibiographer himself.
We also check out an older video of his diving with a seal out in the bay, just off the house we were staying in.
There was a lot of love, but a lot of tears on this day in Lund, for the whole occasion for the Scott/Tilberg/Nichols family had been bittersweet. They'd lost a large force in their lives, their grandmother, and in spite of the family being sprinkled across the globe, she had managed to be present among all of them, in California, Australia, and here in Canada. They'd gotten together to celebrate the life of their grandmother in a ceremony of their own design (which had happened the day before I arrived) and so parting after such an occasion of togetherness was difficult for many. The next morning we would leave, and for Danny, who's from Australia, this meant another long stretch of not seeing her cousins, and her family. Danny was born here in Canada, but has lived her whole life in Australia, and having strong family ties here makes leaving all the more difficult. She was kind enough to sit down and speak to me a bit about her impressions of visiting Canada for the first time in summer weather, and what it meant to her to return to Australia. She was highly open, and decisively honest, and I felt my heart wrench as she cried during our interview... I felt almost exploitative, but it was a beautiful moment and we grew that much closer thanks to her willingness to share the way she really felt. Overall, it was a happy parting, and the rest of the evening was full of laughter and love.
Michelle & Danielle (Danny)
Staying in Lund was a much-needed reprieve from the go-go-go of driving hundreds of kilometres every day. It's strange...Emily and Brent (the cyclists from day two) had said they realized once on tour for a while, that this was what real life was. This was not the vacation, but just what their lives were now, in that moment. All year when you imagine an epic journey like that one, it feels like a dream, but once you're out in a tent, on a bike, on the road, and you're living it - it's what came before that is the dream. Your life, is your now.
I was grateful for the extra day, and for the chance to get to know everyone so personally. Michelle had prefaced her invitation saying "It might be a bit overwhelming...you'll have to meet everyone at once." But her family stood with open arms, and I was overwhelmed only with kindness and acceptance. It was a wonderful two days, and so when I went to bed wondering what it would be like to return to my real life, I found myself thinking instead: "Tomorrow, how will my real life change?"
-Jeff
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