Shhhh...

Finding peace, one bench at a time.

Yesterday, Barry and I were having a quiet, contemplative morning. We were feeling sad’ish. Is that a word - sad’ish? I guess what I mean is that we weren’t full-on sad but it was the underlying feeling.

After a morning of chatting we decided we’d like to go to the lake to sit by the water. Change of scenery - change of mindset. Possibly. Hopefully.

It’s also a quiet day. No wind. Traffic is very light. Sun is shining. Perfect.

Yay, our favourite muskoka chairs are free. I especially like them because my feet can touch the ground. Do you know how many chairs I sit in where my feet don’t touch the ground? All of them!!!

As we sit in these comfy chairs - there’s this big burly guy standing over this older couple talking very loudly. You can’t help but hear what he’s saying. He’s talking about politics. Oh no! So you know what you have to do next Deb - step away from the big burly man! Far away!

We head for the shady trail along the water but we can still hear his big booming voice. We continue until there’s peace.

There are lots of benches along this path. And new ones too. So excellent. We stroll and then sit. Stroll some more and sit some more. Ok I hear it too. This sounds beyond boring, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, interestingly. As we continue this routine Barry reflects - remember all the hiking we used to do? He misses those days. Camera in hand. His camera is heavy now. Well I guess it’s always been heavy but now he notices. Too heavy to walk any distance with. So, we’ve replaced hiking with strolling and sitting and strolling and sitting. Which it turns out - is all good! We do what we can. We are grateful for the strolls.

Then our peace is pierced with yet more voices. Two women sit on a bench, easily 50 feet away, and we can hear them. Not what they’re saying but their voices.

They clearly don’t get the rules - Shhhhh…just Shhhhh….We can hear you, you know. Oh you don’t care. Well that makes sense.

So we continue looking for other benches. Oh look they’ve installed two more and one is facing the sun. But before sitting we look at the plaques on the benches. They’ve been donated in memory of their loved ones. It made us sad though to read the one we sat on because he was younger than us. A moment to reflect.

We sat in peace and quiet and talked about everyday things. Did we talk of the future? Yes, a little but then we stopped and looked out over the water. The quiet, stillness of the water distracted us. For a moment.