The Trip West, part the fifth

"Part the fifth? I thought you already arrived at your destination." I hear your cry, dear Reader, and yes, you are correct. We arrived a few days ago and our stuff arrived yesterday. Today I was moving a lot of boxes into storage, and tomorrow the unpackers arrive (ah, the joys of the military wife.. I mean life).

Yesterday morning, I woke to a dark and snorey room and successfully snuck out without waking anyone. Taking my time, I slowly and scenically made my way to the new home. As I turned the corner near our place (on a road surprisingly and truly called Meade Avenue) there was a beautiful deer watching my progress.

After making my way around the next corner, our corner, I pulled up to our home, got out and went in. Fed the cats and went outside to wait in the morning sun.

While sitting on the front step, enjoying the challenge of a cryptic crossword puzzle, and basking in the clear sunshine, I saw another deer poke her head out of the woods a block away, with only an empty lot (and a couple of quiet streets between us). And then her baby poked his head out. They were soon followed by another large buck.

For nearly an hour I watched them nibble the grasss across the street, and in the yard across from ours, and the houses' next to ours, and ours. They were no more than 5 metres away as I sat there gazing at them. They evidently deemed me safe. It kind of reminded me of some of the women from my past.

Later, a neighbours cat came by. She introduced herself as "Ginger", and let me know that she wanted a bit of attention. She just pawed at my hands as I made the notes that eventually became what you are reading, and eventually she jumped on my shoulders. Ahh, a shoulder cat. I just love shoulder cats.

Given all of this incredible nature literally in our backyard, and front yard, and side yard, how can I fail to appreciate Baha'u'llah's statement "The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies."

When the movers came up, a few moments after I wrote the above, I spoke with Victoria, a woman who had "come along for the ride", and she agreed that you cannot help but be inspired in a setting such as this.

I had hoped to walk the couple of blocks to the ocean this afternoon, but we had to move tons of stuff to get ready for the unpacking tomorrow. Now, after a delicious meal (an oyster burger, of all things), Shoghi and Marielle are playing, and I'm ready to pass out.

One last thought, though.

I've been trying to figure out the main difference between here and Winnipeg when driving around, and I think I finally got it. In Winnipeg, a city in which you can watch your dog run away for a week, you can see everything for miles around. If you are looking for a store, chances are you can just look down the road a bit and see it in the distance.

Here you are lucky if you can see the end of the block.

I was standing in a parking lot with a huge cliff rising above me on one side. When I looked at the top, I saw a gazebo. 20 metres away the cliff dropped off so quickly that they had built a series of townhouses up it, leaving the back as it was. The  very topology of the land seems to force you to live in the moment, almost unconcerned for what lies around the corner.

Unless you're looking for a good restaurant, and are quite hungry (experience from earlier tonight which, fortunately, resulted in the fortuitous experience of said oyster burger).

I'm sure if I took a few more minutes I could find much guidance in the Writings about living in the moment, instead of worrying about the future, but for now I hear my bed luring me with a siren's call.

A bon nuit, dear Reader, and I promise to get back to some more interesting topics as soon as we get into the new home, after tomorrow.