Day Five: In a Good Way

I wish I had a audio recorder this morning to capture the sound of running shoes walking on gravel. Squish crunch sploof, squish crunch sploof. It's rhythmic and hypnotic and comforting even though I am trying to walk quickly today, wondering how fast I can actually get to school. Still, I stop to take pictures. Darn. That slows me down. I look at the plump chokecherries dangling out across the road and it hits me. Chokecherries do not grow on bushes, they grow on trees. Look, there's the lean round trunk. I've always said "chokecherry bushes".

As I come out of the trees and into the valley before the ski hill, the phrase, "In a good way" pops into my mind. When I've heard elders talk about treaty or elders talk about anything, I've heard this expression, "In a good way". A few years ago my husband adopted these words, and it seems that when he speaks them, he often comes up with something wise to say. (Don't tell him I said that!)

I am glad to be walking this morning because it clears my mind, and I realize that I am going to school "in a good way". Usually, I'd be spinning out of my driveway at 8:24 or 25 or 26 for the five minute drive to school. Now it is 7:25 and the valley has opened her arms to me, warming me with sunshine. Yes, this is a good way to go to school.

I take the long way, or is it the long way, around the Treaty 4 grounds, but I cut across the railway track, this time on a spot closer to the school. I can't resist stopping to take a picture of the ditch. I love ditches! Always have! Much of the ditch has tall grass that has lain down, likely through wind, rain, and the hail we had last week. I push any tall grasses sideways with my foot and I get to the highway bir free. I arrive at 7:47 and I left at 7:10, so that's 37 minutes. Better than the 45 to an hour it sometimes takes when I'm taking pictures and the long way.

My husband and I have medical appointments and we have to leave the school at noon. On the way home for supper, the hospital, treaty 4 grounds, governance centre, ski hill, trees, grasses whip past so fast I can't even say hello. I look forward to going to town in the morning, "in a good way."