A World Away

Coming back to reality is always so hard for me.  What makes it so hard is knowing that it will probably be a while before I get to go away again.  I just spent 3 GLORIOUS days in the mountains, doing things I so much love to do, with someone I love doing things with.  Truly, I am extremely blessed!

It was a tough decision to go away and have to miss my black belt class, the I Ho Chuan class and my fitness class.  Those things should be a priority for me, and in most cases, they are.  I am not really happy living here, or maybe I should use the word "content".  The winters are long, the summers usually not that great, weather very unpredictable, and it is soooo far from the mountains.  I have a hard time in the winters here, and it is in my summer months that I try to get as much "pick-me-up" as I can.  So, this weekend, I made the mountains a priority.  That isn't to say that I didn't do any kung fu while I was away, or think about it.  I thought about it ALL THE TIME.  My friend that travels with me thinks of my kung fu all the time too.  He is always figuring how much of my requirements I can log and what I have to do that particular day.

The first day was a sleep in day as we got into Fernie at 3 in the morning.  The ski hill didn't open till noon anyways, so we slept in till 11:00.  We were up on the Fernie ski hill by 12:30 and mountain biked till they closed the chair lift at 7:00.  By the time we finished our last run down the hill, it was close to 8:00.    It was absolute fun, fun, fun biking down the trails.  This year the trails were a bit trickier as the amount of rain this season has made a lot of ruts in the trails.  The best practice we discovered was to hover above the bike seat and trust the suspension system of the bike.  (you have to have a top suspension system and disc breaks to ride the trails).  When the trails got very steep, we had to hover just above the back wheel of the bike to stop us from going over the handle bars.

Our favorite trails to ride down were the ones that meandered in the trees.  These ones were skinny trails with roots and switchbacks around trees.  They were a fun challenge.  I thought often of my horse stance for most of these trails, as I had to hover above the seat with my feet both parallel to the trail, (toes forward)  If one of my feet was in the down position it easily caught on the side of the trail, or passing roots or just bumps in the trail.  Definitely was a fantastic way to work out and a sensational way to accomplish requirements!

The next day was a day of hiking in Waterton.  We hiked into some big falls and spent about an hour and a half there snoozing, exploring and eating lunch before hiking back.  It was awesome!  Again, a great way to work on requirements.  Later that evening we wandered around the townsite and had dinner, and then finished off the day at a dance at a private camp in the Waterton area.  The music and company was great and we had a blast!

Day three was spent on Waterton Lake in our kayaks.  This day was. . . . WOW!  The lake was so calm and the experience was amazing!  I have kayaked on the small lake, or swamp of  Chickakoo in the Stony area, but being on this lake made me realize what I really liked.  The scenery as always was out of this world.  We stopped at a beach area about 45 minutes into our kayaking, only to be scared off by a black bear.  We later followed that bear for about an hour up the shores of the lake.  We kept our distance from shore as the first time we spotted him, he was swimming across the channel.  It was really cool to watch and experience wildlife in this way.  To watch the bear stop and nibble berries, then have a scratch or two.  My friend and I were both surprised at how noisy he was as he wandered through the bush, and how the trees shook at his passing.

We kayaked for almost 2 hours and tried to scout out a place to try our hand at cliff jumping.  We then stopped on the shores for lunch, and a snooze.  I did a bit of exploring around the bend of the lake as well.  We kayaked back through the channel, then up and down another section of the lake shores.  We got off the lake just after 7:00 as the sun was going behind the mountains and it was 8:00 by the time we headed for home, getting back to Spruce at 2:00 am.

I do not take this weekend for granted, at all.  I fully understand the extent of how lucky I am to be able to go away on these types of weekends.  I am single, only 49 years old and my kids are grown.  I have no responsibilities to hold me home. . . . except for my kung fu.  I love kung fu, but I also love the mountains.  It is in the mountains that I feel like my real true self.  I feel I belong there, and they make me feel so whole, and fulfilled in my life.  I especially like Waterton.  It is like a world all its own.  When we stopped in Red Deer at 1:00 in the morning after leaving Waterton, my friend made a comment.  "It's like going from one world into another".  It really is.  Waterton is all mountains, and a beautiful lake.  Deer wander the town site along with so many families.  There are families everywhere and usually many generations together.  They are families bonding and loving, sharing and exploring, playing and laughing.  You see a few of the younger people with cell phones, but not many.  People come to Waterton to enter that different world of peace, beauty and serenity.

I had so much time to ponder about my life, and I thought on many things.  My friend wants to go back to Waterton before the summer is over.  ME TOO!!  But I have my kung fu to think about.  I did include in my requirements to spend 4 weekends in the mountains pondering on such things as my life and to absorb into every fibre of my being, those things I spiritually, physically and emotionally gain from being in the mountains.
I have pretty much come to the conclusion to be gone from Spruce Grove by the end of next year.  I really need and want to move closer to the mountains.  It is extremely hard to think of leaving my 4 kids and 2 grandkids, but I won't go far, so I can come back often.  Family is a huge priority for me, and I need to be a part of their lives and I want my grandchildren to have a close relationship with their nana.  I don't want to be someone they see twice a year.

My son has one more year of university and then I am really free to go where I please.  I have decided that if I am not in a committed relationship by then I want to make a change in my life.  If I don't move away, then I want to take a year and do some humanitarian service somewhere.  I have been researching this and trying to find the right one and the right places to go to.  Either way, I want part of my future to include being close to the mountains.  It may sound selfish, but I want to be able to take off on any given weekend and mountain bike, hike, cross country ski, hang out at a lake, a clear clean lake, not one that is all green and swampy.  I love the beauty of the agriculture here in Alberta, but I constantly crave the mountains.  They help my body and soul to unite, and to find peace is that unity.  I should feel that as a martial artist, but it saddens me to say that I don't.  For me, the mountains provide one thing and kung fu another.  Together they are a good balance for me.  Together they make up me