Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Big Woods Chronicles. Building a life.

The Amazon adventure is coming to an end and the next continuing story will be the adventure of our family`s move to Saltspring Island to pursue the ‘simple’ life. Giving up a good job and plunging into uncertainty with my family was the training we would use as the foundation for future adventures. Here is a little preview of this story.

                                                "Oh no!"says the chicken. " Not the CATS!"

Our Volkswagon van pulls to the side of the highway that climbs out of the Okanagan Valley and I stop my pick-up truck behind it. We are only ten minutes into the journey to the coast and already there is a problem. My wife Heather jumps out, looking green in the face, “Bill! The cats are puking and messing in the back!” she says, “ They will have to go in the truck with the goats and chickens”. As I delicately extract the cats in their cardboard box, while breathing through my mouth, I can see that our three young children, strapped in their seats, are close to gagging too. Those blasted feral cats that were pressed on us at the last minute by a fellow art teacher! Soon we are back on the road again, the cat box tucked into a space beside the farm animals and ‘Gus de bus’ scrambles on up the hillside ahead of me, a green fog wafting from all it`s open windows. ‘Upward! Onward!’ seems to have become our family motto in the last year since we decided to move ‘back to the land’ on a Canadian Gulf island.

2 comments:

Michael Hryniuk said...

I love the blog Bill! It is filled with life and wisdom (as well as that little bit of unique "Gardheim" humour that has always made me smile)

I look forward especially to the Big Woods Chronicles. It's amazing timing. Ever since I returned home last week, the thing I've been asking myself is what really makes a person ready for the step you and Heather took. What "moves" them to take it and frees then to let go of all of the stuff that holds them back?

You seemed to think I should hold off "cashing out" for the time being and just take it in smaller two-week steps. There's wisdom in that but something has been gradually been taking over inside of me that wants more stillness and solitude in my life. So now you've REALLY got me thinking.

Thanks again for the incredible time together. I'm still drinking from the well of our little Tillikum outing and plotting my return in March (sister's Vancouver wedding trip).

Bill said...

Michael, I don`t recall the Big Woods move being condusive to stillness/solitude. We were too busy making the trail. Maybe there is something of wisdom in that.All that stepping into the pathless forest does is open new perspectives. Sublime perhaps, but mostly hard work and risk. What we risk brings us more than what we earn. Bill.