On Monday we awakened to sunshine and the realization that neither of us had anything scheduled for the day. Ah, retirement. We made the spontaneous decision to visit Amherst Island which is situated roughly a twenty minute ferry ride into Lake Ontario, about an hour and another world away.
A couple of hours later we were in Sandy Beach Conservation Area on the south shore of the island, without anyone else around. We loved the tranquility of the setting and the holy silence of the place, other than when a plane or helicopter passed overhead. Ruth tentatively hopped onto an ice pan and took a yoga pose.
Later we walked on a trail suggested by the owner of Topsy Farm, an enterprise which raise sheep and sells wool and lamb and other "sheepish" products. Again we loved the solitude, and paused for our lunch at the old maple sugar shack back in the bush. On our return along the trail I noticed a shape which I hadn't seen on the way in. It was the carcass of a young deer, recently dead, and with no signs of predation. It was first of all a jarring discovery, then a solemn moment reminding us of the fragility of life and perhaps grounding us in our own mortality. We saw at least two dozen live deer in the woods and fields of the island, but this discovery moved us.
We hope that we are able to explore the natural world - Creation -- for as long as health allows. We now enjoy the opportunities to do so with our three grandchildren, which delights us. Recently our granddaughter, who is 19 months old, was able to walk on her own in this her first ambulatory Spring. She intoned "step, step, step" as she ambled about. At any age we step, step, step into God's wondrous world.
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