Epilogue - A New Leaf + A Matter of Time

Well, as I was raking the last of the autumn leaves from the garden, it occurred to me that I could place one final touch on the Manresa Tour Blog in the form of an epilogue. In many respects, this epilogue is transitional as was the entire Manresa Tour, and thus it serves as the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of the next. As I write, the roofers are making all sorts of loud and busy sounds as they walk back+forth across the roof, hammering, and dropping heavy packs of shingles and tools. Today is another beautiful autumn day, and the roofers have timed their arrival here very well as rain has been forecast for tomorrow.

One objective which I had planned for this new post-Manresa Tour leaf was to establish a routine for myself. I easily imagined that a simple daily routine of a little bit of physical and academic exercise would be an appropriate endeavour, but reality is full of fascinating distractions and opportunities which conspire to thwart such best laid intentions. The adage of the road to hell being paved with good intentions comes to mind, but I have happily discovered that the luxury of time allows me to establish impromptu schedules which are predominantly free of deadlines. Afterall, in the grand scheme of life, we really do have a lot of time to spend. The grand puzzle is how to spend it wisely. This is a puzzle which I have not yet solved, but I haven't given up hope that a solution is possible, and I will try to be a little more resolute in its persual into the future.

Since returning to Canada, we've managed to fill our time with smaller adventures. We visited Stan's Cottages in Combermere (near Barry's Bay, Ontario) where we very fortunate to see Steve and his family again. We were also in time to visit Point House (on the St. John River, New Brunswick) for the annual family reunion of the Duffie and Kingston clans. Michele's aunt Alberte celebrated her 100th birthday in August with all her extended Dupuis family in Montreal. She's the aunt who knew sister Paule from Malta highlighting the notion that the world is, indeed, small. We were also able to move Helene to her new apartment in Chicoutimi where she has entered a new program at UQAC and we celebrated 20th birthday. We delivered a few old bikes to My Bicyclette in Verdun for their annual campaign to provide bikes to Africa. We fixed a leak in one of the pipes above the kitchen, and we regained control of our garden (a wannabe Jurassic Park) after it had been left on it's own all spring and summer. I satisfied a long term desire to join Fred on a compass adjustment survey one night aboard the MV Victoriaborg upbound on the St Lawrence River between Sorel and Montreal. We saw Dave Moran perform live again where we met Harald and Wendy. We visited Marc+Suzel at their cottage on L'Ile aux Grues where we experienced a veritable snow storm in October. And as a final mini-adventure, I drove my Mom to her cottage near Jensen Beach in Florida and took the opportunity to visit for the first time Bob and Mary in Delmar, New York and Heimo and Hedy in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Weather in Florida was a bit windy as a result of the tropical storm Aida, but otherwise hot and humid. Aida's influence was far reached when I experienced very heavy rains around Virginia on the road back...never saw such heavy rain for such an extended period of time, but the mini cooper handled the conditions without any trouble unlike a few of the unfortunate cars I saw in the ditches along the way. By the time I got back to New York, the conditions were ideal for Autumn...fresh air under a clear blue sky and a bright warming sun. These are the same conditions in which I raked the last of my bags of leaves for a record count this year of 78 extra large garden bags. Sure glad that's over with...now, perhaps, I can settle down for a while and find that routine which has, so far, eluded me.

The next adventue will be in March when my brother and I will be bringing our respective better halves down to Tortola on the British Virgin Islands for a week long live onboard intensive fast track to sailing course. We have received 4 text books to read in preparation for the course, and it appears that we have some work cut out for ourselves...just one more distraction from a more disciplined lifestyle!

Will close this epilogue with a quote from Samuel Clemens: "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Farewell and following seas to all.
Dan and Michele

An end to the Manresa Tour and our Safe Return Home

Awoke at 04:00 after a short nap of a few hours and caught the first train to Schiphol at 04:45. Checked our baggage with Lufthansa (Michele's carrier via Frankfurt) and Air France (mine via Paris) and then cleared security and proceeded to Michele's gate to await her fight which departed at 07:00 as scheduled. My flight was scheduled to depart at 11:05 which gave me a few hours to read. Thanks to the very kind generosity of Francine who stoically spent the better part of her day awaiting my arrival, Michele and I were most fortunate to have the luxury of a lift home in comfort and safety. Now, the next chapter of our new life begins. Michele will return part-time to work at her former clinic, and I will pursue some other activities of which I have long dreamed and which, God willing, I will be able to accomplish...more on that later. In the meantime, we are looking forward to a couple of short trips to Ontario and New Brunswick where we'll be able to visit some friends and family. When asked what has been the highlight of my tour, I can easily say that it was my 30 days of silence at Manresa House on the island of Gozo. Dar Manresa was an oasis for me...a still point in a turning world where peace, tranquility and the comfort of the reflective routine of community life reign in satisfying harmony. Coming in second, was the mounatin hiking at Zell Am See where Nature is manifested in such magnificent glory. It is fair to say, however, that we would return to any of the places we visited along the long way home from Malta (with the excpetion of Nice, perhaps!)...the entire trip was great and everyday Michele and I both marvelled at just how very lucky we are to have been able to do this together while we are still in relatively good health. For our long suffering readers who have followed this blog to the end, we hope that you have enjoyed it and we will, in good time update the Picasa links with captions and location tags from time to time and, if possible, I will try to create links to the other Picasa folders which were automatically created by the webmaster when I exceeded (twice) the 500 photos per album limit. As the Picasa albums currently exist, it appears that readers are only able to view the first 500 photos in the public domain...I will attempt to rectify this and will post directions here as to how you may access the other folders should they be of any interest to you.
Peace to all and Happy Trails to our fellow travellers.
Dan + Michele
p.s.
A traditional Irish blessing comes to mind:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.