It’s been a long time since I felt moved to write on my blog. I really had nothing to say and I didn’t want to complain. Don’t feel like talking about losses, the single life, or politics. AH! I can’t even FATHOM being part of the anti-Trump brigade.
So what? What does one talk about when the negativity has resided, the depression has lifted and the world just seems to be a bit brighter?
Strangely, I have no fucking idea.
So, I decided I will write a little story instead.
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A wrong turn almost always leads to the right.
I had to contain myself and wait until the car was in full on park. Removing the seat belt too soon was a bad habit I had and my friend loathed the sound of the parping that always followed.
“Can’t you wait just one more second?” She would ask.
I’d bite my lip and scream inside my head. “nnoooo, park faster.”
The scene before me was just a mere nugget of what my eyes had captured on this windy path during this most flawless, drizzly day and I could hardly wait to get out and breathe it in.
The road to this charming spot had been flanked by trees the size of four of me, out stretched hands and locked. It was as if we hit an invisible time line between the ends of the enchanting small town in this time, to a bazillion years ago smacked into Jurassic Park. I could even imagine the oblong head of the slow moving long neck peeking just above the tallest of trees and large wide web-winged pterodactyl’s dive bombing between the foliage along the blue specks of sky in search of tasty morsels.
My grin widened, almost painfully, when I spotted thick, lush green ferns. They were LITERALLY the size of the Saskatoon bushes at my family’s 100 year old farmstead. HUGE. They packed in all the nooks and crannies between the large and small foliage ever so neatly as if they had been planted by hand with design in mind. Bronzes, auburns and light creams of the rocky mountainside ridges could be seen in between the dense vegetation. With awe, I blinked and focused on the greenest moss I have ever seen, it almost glowed, and it softened the hard angles of the rocky edges adding bewitching whimsy to the whole scene.
You can imagine, after such a delightful appetizer to my brain why I could NOT get out of the car fast enough to be embodied by this magical place.
My legs had been in the bent position for far too long and it took me a bit to unfold and climb out of the low ride. And as soon as I placed my hand on the handle for that last little boost… I smelled it.
The most amazing, organic, shocking scent filled my senses almost knocking me back. What was it? What was that smell? I stood still, moving my head from side to side, nose up in the air, but the cars heat and fumes swirled around me. I could not have that. Moving away from the vehicle as quickly as I could, ignoring the pops and pains in the joints of my knees, I climbed over the small railing to find a clearer spot.
Mint!
That delicious clean smell was fresh crushed mint. I turned in circles sniffing like a dog trying to find the source of the sweetness. I moved from tree to bush, smelling. It had us surrounded.
I cried out to my friend who had just gotten out of the car and asked her. “Do you smell that? Can you smell mint?”
“It is mint.” She replied. “Where is that coming from?”
I shrugged and moved down the path in search of the wonderful aroma. It had moved me, but, the scene that opened up below me held me instantly captive.
A white capped waterfall, in the middle of a rain forest, off a long windy road, just minutes past town. Who would have guessed it?
Mesmerized, almost too afraid to step forward or back or side to side in case the whole thing was a mirage, I simply stood, staring at natures finest gifts and felt…what? content? happy? at peace? Yes. All of the above.
We spent the rest of the afternoon taking the road less travelled and finding delight in all its dips and turns. We never did find out where that bouquet of deliciousness came from but the day turned out to be one of life’s most memorable wrong turns that turned out just right.
Thank you to my friend Gwen who got us lost on this adventure.
KR, thinking of you always.
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