Can We Imagine

There are many facts that I could put down about what is happening to nature, to the planet that supports us.And I'm sure I would have lots of arguments refuting them. In the end I have come to know in my own heart and in my soul that the way we live must drastically change or there may be nothing left for us to survive with. Perhaps there will be pockets, some remnants of what once flourished on the earth and something inside me says why would I want to live in a world that is so diminished.

I believe fear of what will happen, guilt about what we are doing to our own home and a sense of powerlessness leave many of us unable to respond in a meaningful way to this crisis. It seems that life has become so complex, so full of structures that don't want to give up power or change that it seems impossible to know where to start. That's certainly how I have felt for a number of years.

As I have walked along the river valley trail I have contemplated what I might do. Slowly I realized that the answer was around me. It was just that my eyes had to see differently, they had to see with my heart. And so I began to notice things in a different way, that the place would speak to me, to show me it's own soul. I started to record these moments with my camera. I began to feel excitement and a deep sense of joy that I had never experienced before. It was if something out there was speaking to me, wanting to be noticed but not in an acquisitive way.

Keillor Road, Edmonton

When I was a child I used to play in a forested area that was part of a bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. Keillor Road descended gradually from the top through the forest and ended up at a farm on the old flood plain near the river. There was an old stone fence parts of which still survive and behind it Scot's pine trees and the old homestead. I would play on the trails that criss-crossed the area later riding my first bike on them. On Sunday's my family would drive toWhitemud Creek Park at the end of the road for a picnic or for a skate in the winter. I've lived in Edmonton for most of my 55 years and I love this place in the city. For the past ten years I have walked down the trail to the road and then along it to Whitemud Creek and beyond. There is a wonderful trail that runs right along the river that I sometimes take. I often come near dusk walking back up out of the river valley in the dark.  I do this walk almost every day of the year.  This blog will be about my experiences of this place and how the walking led to some simple personal revelations and a connection to my art.