Extreme Kindness

Val's Journal - September 24, 2002

Adventures will dance unexpectedly…

Not even an hour ago, on our way to that Mecca of hay making culture— Regina— an odd pile of dirt caught our collective gaze (a pile of dirt to a west coaster but a cloud tickling ziggurat to a prairie dweller…). Anything fractionally higher than a McDonalds’ sign is bound to stir the soul in Saskatchewan. Could the giant ice cubes of several million years ago serendipitously missed one lucky chunk of rock? We had to find out…or at least sprint to the top of it and scream. Detour time.

Roughly 30 days ago I would have said that life is full of odd turns, but now I know that life is odd turns and just a short time before this journal entry it seemed like a good time to take one.
The blinker did its seductive thing, we hung a left off the Number 11 South and I savored that nervous burn of excitement that is the recognizable overture to an excellent time. With toques pulled down so low eyebrows were rendered useless and still buzzing from the high peddled to us by a packed gymnasium of hyperactive, sweaty children we rolled closer our monolith. It was obvious within minutes that my stoic ice-age survivor was actually a man-made ski slope— still perfect for yelping from.

We sprinted up its stubbly slope, till we had to jog, till we had to walk, till we had to stop. Take in the view, breath it in. Prairie. Lots of prairie. High altitude Canada Geese. Friends still scampering. Stillness, bright light. Wind so cold your smile distorts. And a spike of fear: you may have never come here. Thank-you mother earth and father sky for my odd friends.