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Taking long walks was such an important part of my life but 4 years ago I had a serious accident that makes walking difficult. I still occasionally took them but the pain was so great that the place in my heart and mind that long walks use to take me could no longer be reached.

This past summer I got a bike and found that I could ride for hours and hours without pain and so I became a bike rider. Quickly I wanted my rides to last longer and longer and so before the summer had ended I headed out north of Montreal to the P'tit Train du Nord bike path.

P'tit Train du Nord was once a train line but now the rails have been taken away and it is used for bikes, walking and skiing. I ventured out along that trail a few times on rides which were a few hundred kilometres. I'm a bit old now and not all things are working as good as they did in the past and so the distance I would give myself to ride during the day I would still be travelling as darkness set in.

One of the stops that I would try to reach before it got too late was St. Jovite because it had a nice little bar that was right beside the bike trail. I remember one time riding toward it long after it had already gotten dark and wondering if the bar was still open. When you have been riding along a trail for hours and hours in lonely solitude you are eventually riding with a lot more than a few thought, you eventually find your heart riding right along with you.

It was while I was on that trail wearing my Ipod that I first heard a song from Blue Alert. That beautiful voice singing about how it is dark all the way to St. Jovite and that it is dark all down the line. How could I do anything other than fall in love with her singing?

It was the only song from Blue Alert that I had at the time but since have come to listen to the complete CD. It is like my love of music is being reborn.
When I first fell in love with music about fourty years ago I would put on an album by Leonard Cohen or "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane and listen to it over and over and over and over. I know now that what I was faiiling in love with was mystery and the feeling one gets from being close to mystery. It is the same with me now with "Blue Alert" I want to keep listening to it over and over again. It's the same but it is also different. It's a different kind of closeness to mystery. Maybe I'm a little better prepared now to meet mystry.

Jack

BTW I'm glad that Leonard is now both a woman and a man.

Jack,

That was a wonderful story, in many different ways.

Thanks so much for sharing it.

Sherry

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I was thinking about Blue Alert. The words that came to me, in this order:
Class, Confidence,
Restraint...
Freedom, and Flow.

Your acquaintance with Blue Alert was ideal, Jack . My initial, full listening was with headphones, as I drove a rural road. What a G~dsend bicycling turned out to be for you . More to say on your post, but with time so limited right now, I'll retire beneath the doorway arch .
< * I love whispering * >


~ Lizzy

Sherry wrote:Jack,

That was a wonderful story, in many different ways.

Thanks so much for sharing it.

Sherry

and thank you Sherry for your kind words and adding in that " in many different ways" It gave me occasion to think of another way that the song met me so sweetly on that bike trail. I saw that what I tended to do with my Ipod on those very long rides was similar to what I did with my memories ( the memories come back empty like batteries that are low)

Jack

Lazariuk,

I too enjoy long walks; always have. But, it's a good thing to
discover new ways to continue enjoyably on our journey(s),
outside of walking. (Metaphor intentional.) Glad that the
song took you there and I imagine hearing it ouside of the
bicycling trip will bring the positive associations of that trip
(and other good stuff, also), back to you. Kind of a nice
way to keep building upon positive experience. On a similar
note, I remember coming out of a wilderness area in my
car after spending some solo time night fishing and a country
song came on the radio, "Fishing In The Dark." Can't help
but feel the outdoor air, hear the frogs calling, etc.
(subtly, but there), when I hear the song now. I've listened
to "Blue Alert" many times, and each time, it is also "different
for me," as well.

I first became intimately acquainted with Blue Alert while driving a rental car from Ottawa to Dorset last July through beautiful Algonquin Park. I was on my way to surprise some friends who run a summer camp on a lake in Dorset for kidney dialysis patients. They didn’t know I was coming. The drive there from Ottawa normally takes 3 hours, but this beautiful sunny day it took 5 hours because of road construction. I didn’t mind though, because the scenery was so tranquil and Anjani’s voice and the images she evoked were perfect company. When I finally arrived, my friends were just packing up to leave for the weekend to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, so the surprise was on me. It was a short visit, we only got to spend about an hour together, but as it was going to be their only weekend away from the camp all summer, I didn’t want to impose myself on them any longer. We said our goodbyes and I headed back to Ottawa via a different route. After a while I turned the music off. That was a big mistake. About 30 km outside of Ottawa, I found myself getting very drowsy. For the first time in my life, I actually dozed off while driving and awoke suddenly to find myself drifting into the lane beside me. I was on an expressway with nowhere to pull over, so immediately, I put on LCs “Old Skin For A New Ceremony,” which I also had with me in the car. I turned it up very loud and, thankfully, Leonard kept me awake for the rest of the trip back to the hotel.

Sherry

I enjoyed your very unusual and interesting account, Sherry. Thanks... and to Leonard for, perhaps [literally], saving your life.


~ Lizzy

Lizzy wrote:

"Thanks... and to Leonard for, perhaps [literally], saving your life."

Yes, more than once I dare say!

Sherry

True... so true... also one of the reasons people in succeeding generations need to know of him, especially as times in the world appear to be getting more and more difficult.


~ Lizzy

lizzytysh wrote:True... so true... also one of the reasons people in succeeding generations need to know of him, especially as times in the world appear to be getting more and more difficult.
~ Lizzy

so true

Jack

"It is not easy work getting news from poetry yet men die miserable deaths every day from lack of what is found there." William Carlos Williams

I easily imagined riding along the track with you . Thanks for sharing your moment. We've just listened to the song once more, which is enhanced by your description as we read it again.

Not wanting to take too much from this thread, lizzie will recall her visits to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. Their images, I hope, will now re-emerge in her mind's eye as she reads my words.

Those images are indelible, Byron... and I thank you and Margaret for taking the time to take me there and the other places you did. I've never written about that time, but it was priceless to me. Never having ~ and always having wanted to ~ visit England, the places you [and Pete] took me [and Phil, more locally], it meant a LOT to me that you were willing to take me around as you did. Such a strong sense of history there and, yet, still so much with more recent appeal [Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane/Lever [do I have the right soap?] Brothers housing] that I was so glad to finally see [the latter not knowing about before, but was so incredibly impressed ]. Even the trees seemed fuller and more green in England . The canal ride with Pete and snuking the moors from the car . The thrift shops with Phil. WoW on all of it. Listening to "Blue Alert" on those road trips and excursions would've been sublime.

Yep... indelible images. I've always felt remiss in never having recorded my experiences with you folks and my gratitude. I was grateful then and I'm grateful now. Thank you!!!


Love,
Lizzy