Going "home" again, to the mountains...

Back "home" in Canmore.

For these past few days, we've been a long way from our Island home, and a long way from the water. Although Thomas Wolfe suggested, in the title of his book, "you can't go home again"...sometimes you can. The elements that thrilled, "once upon a time" and gave value to life...can wait patiently for your return and bid you a warm welcome.

Mountains have framed many of our places of abode over the years. We lived briefly in Waterton Lakes National Park, four years in Grande Cache in the Rockies north of Jasper, and then five years in Banff National Park. We had a small home in Canmore, beneath the majestic "Three Sisters", standing "tall" in the image above. From our location on Vancouver and Gabriola Islands, snow-capped mountains thrill in almost in every compass direction.

An ancient writer recorded a personal impression of these high places when he wrote, "the mountains bring peace to the people". Indeed they do, at least that's always been our experience. There's something that strikes deep within the soul about a topography that, in human experience, remains unchanged over countless millennia. In terms of our recorded history, the mountains we see today have always been there - and in the context of any meaningful future time, they always will be there. In a world of constant change, there's something reassuring about that fact.

Both my parents are now "home" in the mountains of Canmore, their life-journey now complete. We will return often - to hike, to run on the trails, to enjoy the amazing treat of a maple bagel and a soy latte, to be thrilled by peaks that reach into the sky...and to experience the peace that such high places bring. You can go "home" again...be it only for a visit.

Duncan.


PS To our most patient and understanding sea kayaks...not much longer, we promise. ;)