Silence, Solitude and Smooth Pink Heaven

Rewind to Canada. A land of dreams.  For children and those respected adults that truly take the time to pause and look beyond the point-and-shoot camera screens.  Blessed we are to be freed from the boundaries of time limits at this point in our life.  With my fiance we spent a week under the exact circumstances you see below:    

Symbolizing the "end of the road" of our journey for this summer before turning home, we decided to treat this week with care and peace.  We spent three full days in absolute silence.  To really bring closure to the most life-changing experience up to the present point in ones life, it is not as simple as "just turn around and go home."  Our communication came through our eyes.  And sometimes when there was something of great importance that we absolutely had to communicate, any onlooker would have assumed we were some sort of odd specimen of modern-day caveman.  We grunted and flung our arms all about, of course to convey the important message of what to have for lunch and when we would be hungry and where the best island was that we wanted to eat it on.  You know, the basis of all civilized importance that we must all find careers and homes in which to do these important things.  

The dream of living a simple life is unattainable without sacrifice.  We were given no such "simple life."  We faced fears, shed tears, spent endless hours trimming sails and tacking into the wind {always seemingly against our wishes}, sacrificed comfort, sacrificed fresh food from a refrigerator, lived from the same pile of clothes, while we accomplished every part of the summer we had dreamt up during the dreary days of homework and exams in a winterland far far away.  No amount of experience taking weekend trips with Zephyrus or any other boat would have ever prepared us for all of this.    

 Home was a rock and a grove of deeply wooded trees for the week.  Shoes remained in some dark and unknown corner of Zephyrus.  We ran about the island as if we were natives.  Once I almost convinced myself I was Pocahontas as I stood up on a forested rock dripping wet while Corey (with slightly striking resemblance to that one blonde dude) rowed over to pick me up and take me on some unknown silent adventure of the day.

While experiencing silence from all the unnecessary words used in communication, it is absolutely fascinating at how much one may find that everything else is screaming at the top of it's lungs at you in the gentlest possible way.  Trickles of water become a symphony, the sky becomes a portrait of infinite images, wind is a soft breath on your warm skin, all food is as delicious as a glorious feast and the smiles exchanged between us only confirm a mutual understanding of all things right in life.  A shrub some people might refer to as "weeds" became a back tickling gift on a long walk through rough stones rubbing our feet absolutely raw.  Nothing is more satisfying than finding the simplest of pleasures in the simplest way.   

 In this place, it is inevitable that one shall eventually encounter humanity.  When that time came, we were struck with absolute devastation.  To express our devastation we just stared at them.  No, I mean we stared. Like full on with your mouth hanging open even when you know that they know.  So our silence continued with neighbors.  See, the reason is, that this place is a charm and because of that, people have visited this place for many years.  We were fortunate enough to have about 4 back-to-back days without ever seeing a human being.  They have cemented in holds for boats to tie up to the rocks and people have all created all sorts of treasures that they leave behind like fire pits stocked with perfect wood as well as some not so wonderful surprises..like outhouses or the lack-thereof.  Regardless, we soon realized that our time to stop speaking came to an end with the approach of humanity and decided (silently still) to integrate ourselves back into it.  So we introduced ourselves to the neighbors and apologized for our cavemen like seclusion from their friendly hellos.  We got to know a group of 5 friendly Canadians rafted on two 27' sailboats in about the same condition as ours.  We had a great night around the campfire with them, and when they left the next day they gave us the biggest gift of all: ice, meat, bacon and corn.  WOAH! Talk about neighbors!  Burgers and corn off the fire when we hadn't touched a grocery store in over 2-3 weeks.  AMEN!

As good things must always come to an eventual end, we left this place with a glorious sail...followed by another and another and another.... Bringing us to Drummond Island and America territory.
-M