Stabilizing oneself is an ongoing adventure, controlled not by vulgar personal ambition so much as the modest fulfillment of scheduled daily tasks. First attend to what is at hand. Admittedly for the agèd community in particular, many of the pressing routine activities centre upon medical purpose. It is an unglamorous and unanticipated abridgement directed to the depictions of one’s family physician or corresponding specialist who in turn collectively have carriage of one’s well being.

Once those desiderata are complete, the rigidity of the day evaporates.  One is then at liberty to indulge the open air, the wandering spirit, the acknowledged repetition and buoyancy of habit and preference. Gone is the lingering overture of imperative or obligation.

Today there wasn’t the added encouragement of sunshine or azure skies. But the air was warm enough to sustain the open windows in the car. And we had the foresight to precede that euphoria with an exceedingly complementary meal from the good people at Neat Café where we lunched today amidst a tightly trafficked dining area. The subsequent passage over the Madawaska River along the winding roadway to White Lake likewise ensured a mute gratification.

It has taken me until now to adapt fully to the local environment – which, for the sake of definition, includes Lanark County, Renfrew County and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Unwittingly we interrupt and contaminate the more providential applications by devoting ourselves instead to speculative dreams and whimsical expeditions. Anything which distracts from the uninhibited enjoyment of the moment is a possible peril or diffident limitation. The preponderance of activity must ultimately involve the immediate not the projected or prolonged.