Thursday 24 May 2012

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

I’m On The Road Again

Tignish, PEI

Daruka and I lodged at the Heritage Inn, a former convent for nuns.  It was an ideal location, one minute from the Confederation Trail, my walking route.  One woman I met on the trail said that the path was a railway line established in the 1800’s.  In 1968 the train ceased operating.  It’s another one of those stories about ‘rails to trails’.

I met a few folks on the path, certainly more bugs proportionately.  Near wet lands and density of trees, the little guys were plentiful.  Stopping in some parts for a moment such as to urinate, meant a cloud of mosquitoes would practically polka dot my saffron robes.  It is understood that both in the mosquito community and the black fly kingdom, it’s the females that bite, while the boys remain laid back. 

 One of the towns I walked through, Albertan, had a claim to fame for fox farming.  In 1913 and beyond black and silver fox were bred for the fur industry, but that exists no more.  Incidentally two fox, a mix of black silver and red, hung around our lodging place for the evening.  Fox are a marvelous mould of a creature. 

Daruka and I lost each other for a good 4 ½ hours.  I was walking down a rather straight trail and he with parrot, Billy, was driving to intersecting roads where the trail crosses.  It becomes complicated at times, and at one point I got hungry, so I chewed on the inner leaves of a cattail plant.  We finally found each other at the village of Bloomfield.  There we met Nancy who works at the Petit Post Office.  She was inspiring and told us that she prays often.  “How to keep happy in the face of problems?” she wondered.

I offered to say that balance and happiness are often synonymous.  “Keep busy, keep engaged, but keep enough time for some introspection. God must be at the center.  The Bhagavad-gita, sacred text, explains that we try to be temperate in our activities.  Depression often come from being under engaged, and nervous breakdown and stress arrives with too much engagement, and no time for self reflection.”

She then offered to say, facetiously, “You can ask God for patience, and the answer will be, ‘You might have to wait for a while.’”  Thank you, Nancy, for that, and thank you Eric and Cindy, who came from your respective newspapers to enquire about Canwalk, and the 4th trek across Canada; on its 2nd leg since commencing last September. This walk is meant to encourage pilgrimage.

37 Km

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