RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Posted In: General

Balance

Generous friends made their small Yukon cabin available to my girlfriend and I this weekend. I live in the north in large part because of the incredible wild country up here, so it was quite jarring to travel just those few miles from town and have it dawn on me how disconnected from place I have become in the past few months. Too many miles on the road and in the air. Furtive channel surfing in the austere uniformity of hotel rooms while sleep eludes me. Chasing wireless in cafes, airports and lobbies. Ignoring my fellow travelers in favour of my laptop on planes, trains and taxi rides.

Even returning north isn’t much of a remedy, since up here I still so often remain in the same swirl of email traffic, overdue reports, phone messages, and blah, blah, blah. The remedy was going to a place that is unplugged and wood fired. Watching squirrels dart across the snow from windowside in the warmth of the loft. Wandering through shallow snow to a ridge with beautiful views of Whitehorse’s Grey Mountain and the Yukon River Valley.

I’m not advocating that we all scatter into the bush to haul wood and carry water for the remainder of our days. I’m just convinced that the right choices for the land and its future can only be made when we carry the edifying body memory of having walked it, slept on it, and felt the wind blow across it. That can be pared away from you pretty quickly in the rush of day to day. I pledge not to let that disconnect happen again, and I am very happy to know I have friends who will hold me to it.