Are you as confused as we are about what is legal in terms of "outing and abouting" these days? We get all the dire warnings about physical distancing, which is very important, but are we okay to go outside? There are the signs on provincial 400-series highways telling us bluntly to stay home. Meanwhile, there are a growing number of articles saying that in order to stay healthy in body, mind, and spirit. we need to exercise and, if possible, do so outside.
Part of the challenge is that we don't all live in the same circumstances of population density. In Toronto people are cheek by jowl, so parks and beaches have been closed and hefty fines for violations are a threat. But the other day we were cycling by the Bay of Quinte and I stopped to ask two police officers - from an acceptable distance of course -- if what we were doing was permissible. We were assured that it was and when I explained that we had been paddling and walking in less frequented areas we were given the okay on those activities as well. We have stopped going to provincial parks because they're closed but we've found other places to walk.
We are very, very grateful that the pandemic which has deeply affected us all became a reality as we approached the season of Spring rather than the beginning of Winter. Evidence suggests that COVID-19 emerged last November but we didn't realize that at the time. Can you imagine a Winter under house arrest?
Today we traveled to Prince Edward County and the Beaver Meadow Conservation Area where we met not a single human, although the posted sign let us know we were allowed to be there.
As we began our walk we thanked the Creator for the beauty around us. At one point we noticed flowers covering just a few square metres in one spot -- why there? To our delight trilliums were pushing up through the leaf duff from last Autumn. By the marsh the spring peeper frogs were yakking it up. At another spot we stopped to listen to the clatter of branches in the hardwood portion of the woods. It was heaven on earth for us, and so hopeful.
We are law-abiders, and convinced that physical distancing is an act of Christian love in the midst of our present-day plague. But we'll be out amidst the communion of non-human saints until we're told otherwise.
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