What falls away is always, and is near.
I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
I have remembered these lines from the poem "The Waking" by Theodore Rilke (?) since I first read them and made an effort to memorize them years ago; they have come to mean much more to me since Jim died, so I begin what Brian V. refers to as "the great trek" with them in mind.
Wed., Sept. 29 I got up at 7 and had breakfast with Don and Mela, coffee and Don's toast with honey and sliced strawberries.The day was grey and cool but not much rain. There was very little traffic, and I drove without incident, aside from a bit of construction and a big blast, smoke and flying chunks of rubber as a transport just ahead of me blew a tire. I had lunch at Tim Horton's and proudly paid with my going away gift card and filled my new travelling mug too. I pulled over for a nap at a truck stop in Espanola and carried on to the Sault. I thought that travelling alone I would be more relaxed about meeting deadlines and destinations, but I wasn't. I drove through the Sault listening to the 6 o'clock CBC news and didn't begin looking for a hotel until I was on the west side and the news was over. When I finally realized that I was out of the Sault and hadn't looked at my Mapquest map to know how far away the next place was, I turned around in a driveway and headed back until I found the Ambassador Hotel where I am now. It's not a great hotel, but I was attracted to its fresh paint and planters full of begonias still in bloom. It has internet access, and I later discovered that its proximity to a place called Wacky Wings made it even better. Mark and David V. would love the decor at WW. It's Red Green hunting lodge theme is just this side of hokey but well done in its own way, a bit like Au Coeur du Village in Wakefield. Absolutely everything is made from rubbed but not squared tree trunks of varying diameters, the lights are deer and moose antlers and there are stuffed deer heads and fish on the walls. It was full of kids and the dry jerk wings were delicious. The waitress told me that two brothers from the Sault started it up. They now have two in the Sault and are about to open a branch, although it will take a forest of trees to do so, in Mississauga, so the Cleggs can go and say I sent them.
It's 10:30 and raining and I'm going to lie down and read until I fall asleep. I wish whoever reads this well.
