The outdoors is hinting – slow down!
BY ALLEN MACARTNEY When was the last
WHITEWATER PADDLER Where to find her: Join the Y Canoe Camping Club
www.yccc.ca and take a whitewater tandem course (members swear the YCCC isn’t a singles club but we know at least two couples who met here). What to look for: She’s got a serious stern pry and not afraid to use it. What to avoid: Blames the bow paddler when they dump. What to say: “Let’s read this river together.” Best first date: Playing in the rapids at Bate Island, halfway across the Champlain Bridge.
LAWN BOWLERS
Where to find her: Wherever the grass is trimmed to perfection. What to look for: Deep tan and white sneakers. What to avoid: Can’t lift the ball. What to say: “You bowl me over, lady!”
Best first date: Elmdale Lawn Bowling Club at 40 Reid Ave. Your grandkids can play while you bowl. «oo
time you arrived home from work, pulled into the driveway, turned off the key, and suddenly thought, “I don’t remem- ber any of the trip home”? The right side of your brain had been guiding your car through traffic, stopping at lights, turning corners, avoiding pedestrians, while simultaneously the left side of your left brain had been busily multi- tasking, listening to music, sketching a grocery list and sifting through domestic, aesthetic, financial, even romantic details. More fun than driv- ing maybe.
But sometimes this scenario plays out when we arrive home from a day cycling or hiking. The day’s events are lost in a blur of move- ment and sound, with few relaxing memories to cherish months after. Sure, you may have enjoyed the speed and adrenaline rush, but did you taste the tranquility? Were you really even “there”? We live 24/7, ramped up on adren- aline in the workplace and caffeine in our culture, and we gulp it down in double doses, never savouring the exotic aroma we’ve paid for. Multi- tasking is our religion, helping us to whiz through more and more items on our To Do list. But as we bank off the high speed turns, it’s hard to down-shift when we enter the woods. Stress lingers. A racing freight train
can’t stop quickly and neither can people. We can’t just step out of our car at the trailhead and immediately connect with nature. The tranquility and serenity won’t
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be there, even if we could hear the silence over the headphones. There’s too much adrenaline in our blood, too many lingering multi-tasking issues.
Bilbo Baggins, in Lord of the
Rings, once said, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” If that sounds fa- miliar, here are some ideas for when you next escape the city. Before even getting in your car,
take deep slow breaths. Make a con- scious effort to step away. Turn off your cellphone. Better yet, leave it at home. Try moving in slow motion as you back your car out of the drive- way. And turn off the radio. Engage your five senses instead. When you arrive, anchor your at-
tention in the outdoor moment. Try to smell the earth under your feet, and hear the wind in the trees. Speak little, and listen much. Look for cloud formations. See any dragons? Pick a quiet spot by a brook and eat your sandwiches slowly, tasting each morsel, discerning the spices. If you do this, you’ll have a better chance of returning home with serenity, not feeling spent and bruised. Robert Service’s poetry – or any of
your favourites – is soothing when whispered beside a quiet lake. That’s
a memory you’ll cherish for years. ~ Allen Macartney is planning a
2,000-kilometre solo canoe trip down the Yukon River. «oo
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