WHAT WE SHOULDN’T MISS ABOUT A WINTER’S DAY
What a great shame, a sin, a betrayal of our instincts, to watch a day unfold from the foggy abstraction, the distance of stress, worry and hurry. How many folks will drive speedily past the beautiful winter scenes between home and destination and back again. What a crime against life, to ignore these tranquil scenes that afford us, each and every one, an opportunity to escape, even for a moment the rigors of the work day. We have become desensitized to so much today that it has become a danger to our respective health and welfare. It’s as if life was meant to be frenzied and frayed, the pace intended to be wickedly fierce and unforgiving. It’s nonsense. Clearly mankind has forgotten the importance of such beauty and allure of nature. We have become a population of zombies, wandering the earth at the command of beepers and gadgets that keep us tethered to the work place longer and longer. It is that unreserved commitment of soul that is sacrilege in this wonderful world, this amazing life. A sacrifice that his killing our humanity molecule by molecule. How fettered we’ve become as a race trying to survive and prosper. It is at the expense of soul, because it is within nature we will find the truth of ignorance, and the ravages inflicted by indifference to our purpose on earth. On our death beds we will appreciate, only momentarily, that the pursuit of wealth and success is invisible at this final accounting. Instead of nurturing our souls and engaging nature as the great healer, we push on to new and more incredible extremes that are impossible to sustain. And when finally, one day, the weary traveler, the work-a-holic, pauses momentarily to casually gaze upon a scene, such as I see every morning from my front window looking out over The Bog, it is often too late to heal entirely mind, body and spirit. Being enslaved by society’s interest in achievement, at the expense of self discovery and pleasure, is a damnation of greed. It is in these snowy woodlands today that the weary voyeur can find inspiration and peace beyond anything man made, man imposed, man inflicted. Away from the false truths, this well trodden path affords a comfortable view over the snow-laden cedars and birches, the towering evergreens along the horizon and willowy saplings that dot the landscape with such an interesting contrast of silver and green. A few moments here, watching out over the sparkling snow in this strong afternoon sun, hearing the trickle of melt water down the little creeks that run toward the lake, and being pleasantly haunted by the windsong in the tree-tops, one can feel peace of mind applied everso gently upon injury.
I watch through the day this traffic parade, and I do ponder how many passersby take but a few moments to glance at the magnificence of their surroundings. Do they recognize that this is the hinterland of Ontario, the rural clime, with a greatly reduced urban conundrum? Or is it true that technology and its advances in communication, have unfairly imposed an urban lifestyle on the dwellers of the countryside......without anyone really thinking about how life has changed in rural Canada, where the urban-weary used to escape the impositions of technology, and the long time rural folk were satisfied with less convenience but more of what they loved. And that always had a lot to with family, quality of life, and wide open spaces. With their headsets on, and management devices in every available pocket, laptops and positioning devices, ready to engage, having a snowy landscape sprawling along the country roadway doesn’t appear to be the wonderful distraction it has always been, living here in Muskoka. It’s wrong. It’s just wrong. Especially when our homegrown youngsters are equally distracted and urbanized despite the fact they life in the heartland of one of the most beautiful districts on earth. Is this reason enough that local politicians and developers should be concerned? To me it is, of course. I don’t really suspect that a naysayer, historical, traditional type like me, will have too much impact when it comes to preserving this beautiful lifestyle we have had in these snowy, tranquil woods for long and long. Some say it’s progressive to embrace technology, and what it can do for us is a blessing of productivity and connectedness in a shrinking modern world. Well, what it has done to us, in a country nutshell, is remove us from the true appreciation of the nature surrounding us, and that is dangerous to quality of life no matter how you look at it. When those who embrace this concept arrive at that last moment of life, will they remember a romp they once had through a beautiful meadow or lakeland, a canoe traverse of a sparkling Muskoka lake, or a business meeting that turned an enormous project into an equally enormous profit. Think about it!