Tall trees and complete quiet (more or less)

Muffled by snow, helped by being a good distance from the main highway and train line, Emerald Lake is a bowl of quiet, tree lined and surrounded by mountains.

Until last week, we hadn’t visited in almost ten years, but little has changed, and it still delights. Ten years is a considerable chunk of a human span, but nothing in mountain measured time. I like mountain terrain, because it keeps you small, and encourages perspective.

Speaking only for myself, lately it’s been a challenge sometimes to go about my business – the business of enjoying almost retirement and having a pleasant time living in western Canada – when it’s the case that there are utter morons (invariably but not exclusively of the right wing nut bar brigade) doing their level best to make bad situations far, far worse. I won’t go into details, you read the news. I generally (and genuinely) do try to keep things chipper on here, but, bloody hell, it’s a mess out there, isn’t it? Ok, stopping there, more or less.

Fanciful I know, but maybe the mountains shake their heads in bemusement, and perhaps even disappointment, at the grasping antics of certain tiny humans. Do mountains concern themselves with small people, particularly those fuelled by ego or narcissism? Probably not. Ok, time to stop.

Petty people, deluded by their own “grandeur” – grandeur, ha! – as if! Oh, come on, the word isn’t grandeur – let’s try greed! I have to laugh at their smallness, their lack of awareness, of what they really signify in the grand scheme. Ok, stopping here, for sure, more or less.

Thank goodness for vast landscapes and quiet places, locations that might remind us nothing lasts forever, and of exactly how big or small we really are…

Thanks for reading – what passes for normal service will resume next week – and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!