New Beginnings

The Very First Post

“Sitting around a fire I hear a rustling in the bush. After a couple of minutes my curiosity gets the best of me and I decide that I must investigate. With a dim flashlight I spot the source of sound and am relieved to know that it isn't a big critter. I kneel down to see what it actually is. It's not a sinister creature like I had begun to imagine, but a fluffy adorable bunny!”

Looking back at the little bunny picture has me thinking about how spring is around the corner. New beginnings. This is an old pic, from a different new beginning. It makes me think of the first time to Elk Island National Park. My 19th birthday. I’d just moved from Ontario to Alberta and I had no idea what life had in store or who I’d become. The beginning of my adult life. If you were to tell my then who I was going to become. I’d never have believed you.

I’ve been to Elk Island National Park a few times. The first was to celebrate mine and a dear friend’s 19th birthdays. That was quite a while ago. I’m so grateful to have been introduced to it and have enjoyed it many times since.

Only a half hour from Edmonton, Alberta you enter another world. As we drive past the ‘ Elk Island’ sign we’re greeted by Buffalo! Actually, a Bison! Big. Furry. A bit menacing. Bison. They sort-of look at you with one eye. It’s hard to tell if they’re completely impartial about you being there or about to ram your car.

As we near the camping area it becomes obvious that the small ponds near to the roadway have been made by a family of beavers. Their dam and lodge visible from the road. I get out of the car to have a look, and hear a tail smack on the water! A beaver warning the rest of the family that someone’s around.

Once there we set up the campsite and get a lay of the land. Wildlife everywhere! Geese and small shorebirds on the sandy beach, frogs and dragonflies. It’s become a sanctuary for a long list of critters.

There’s a boardwalk that goes through the marsh and out onto the lake. Walking along it reminds me of where I grew up in Ontario. My mum’s farm is on the edge of a marshland, making us ‘Marshin’s’. Naturally. The swamp is teeming with wildlife. Birds in flight racing between the grasses. Other’s paddling smoothly along on the water. Dragonflies swarming us, like little fighter-choppers rescuing us from the mosquitoes. The occasional ripple on the water that I swear is a fish though I don’t know what kind. At this point I’d never seen a Pike before.

I remember looking at the world with open eyes. Taking my time to see as much as possible and appreciate every little thing. The dragonfly larvae scooting along in the water. Watching a spider float through the air on his web parachute, watching in awe as I realize the feat that the little arachnid is achieving in front of my own eyes. Life got fast not long after this moment. I grew up, got a career. Became successful. I hope to get back to this mindset someday. To really take in those small moments. To slow down and appreciate the amazing things happening all the time around us.