Tuesday 26 August 2014

Not This Trip

I am about to head out the door on a road trip with my friend David. Both he and I are micro-managing control freaks so it should be an interesting time. Actually I am looking forward to it a lot; I have learned to relax once I am underway and I know David will too. It's just the beginning of things that is a challenge, and funny to watch according to my daughter.

Right now David is heading across to get a last minute prescription filled. Then we will transfer stuff from one vehicle to another and park his car in my spot in the garage. Once that is done, we will head to Vancouver as our first stop, followed in a day or so by Victoria, then Seattle. After that, we will wander our way home through Oregon, Idaho and then Montana.

I love the drive through the mountains to the coast, those massive peaks defining the continental barrier separating coastal BC from the great prairies that sweep out of the north and run clear through to the Gulf of Mexico. Here in Canada we call them the prairie provinces; in the US they are called the great plains states. In both cases it is an impressive shift from the gentle rolling plains to the spires of granite.

Each time I do this drive I wonder if it will be my last. It is the vanity of spirit within me that convinces me continually that there will be another time, another trip. I even think about the road trips that might happen after I can no longer drive, where I will perhaps convince one of my many friends to take me up into those heavens of stone once again. Yet I know that one of these times will be my last time.

When my Dad was dying, in his last few weeks, my brother Adam arranged a fishing trip, the last fishing trip my Dad ever took. I remember the look on his face when we drove along the coast of Vancouver Island and he looked out over the Georgia Strait to the mountains across the water. I think he knew that this trip would be his last, that this view of the mountains would be his last, that he would never again see the glisten off the water or the life of the ocean's surface.

That will happen to me. But I am not yet convinced that it will be this trip. Maybe the next one.

1 comment:

  1. Richard, you have gone through so much pain and suffering from ALS. I am so sorry to hear this. Just wondering, have you received acupuncture and medical nutrition for it? Are you interested? If you are interested in medical nutrition, then I can e-mail you a link to a recorded health webinar that discusses how to support the body's central nervous system in the face of ALS. If you would like that, then please e-mail me at Megumi.Morford@gmail.com Best wishes and God bless you!

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