Balance

What a great, glorious weekend this was!

This is why I live in Vancouver, the summers are breathtaking, and even the winters are equally so. Just so you know, from October - March, it rains just about every day. We get the occasional snow, and in February - March, the fog rolls in and blankets the city for weeks at a time. The ocean & mountains are all shrouded in monochromatic shades of grey, and people bustle about in the streets hidden under their brightly colored umbrellas.

But in the summer? This is the most beautiful city in the world, hands down, no question about it. It was 4 months and 6 days ago that I had a complete right hip arthroscopy (which for those of you who aren't totally sick of hearing about this - means a total hip replacement). About 3.5 months ago, I was in hospital with pneumonia and blood clots in my lungs, I couldn't walk, had difficulty breathing, had to inject myself in the stomach with anti-clotting medication on a daily basis, had an infected wound and was in pain like you wouldn't believe. 12 weeks later, I went out and bladed the entire seawall. The total distance was a little over 11 KM (or just shy of 7 miles for those of you who aren't metric), and it was glorious, exhilarating, and profoundly gratifying.

After years of constant, chronic fire-breathing acid-gargling hip-related pain, I strapped on my skates and headed out without a care in the world - I flew over the concrete, glided down hills, burned around corners and revelled in the rush of covering 20 feet with each single stride. I noticed a juvenile bald eagle soaring above me, (who, no doubt like me was enjoying his own fantastic gift of flight), and after blasting by Siwash Rock, I stopped for a while to watch the Rock Balancing Guy on Second Beach. (Click on this picture to fully get the details of what he was doing - and just so you know? It worked).

Usually when he throwing his thing down, there is a crowd of people clogging up the seawall, but other times I've seen him other times just working alone, in bad weather, just taking the rocks and balancing them. Once they are in place, he gives each one a little finger-tap as he is testing their balance, almost like he is listening to them, and then if necessary, does a minute almost indistinguishable adjustment. He does this day in and day out, and sells postcards of his creations to the tourists, and has a guest book for people to sign. I was reading it this morning, with comments like "This is amazing, thank you so much for sharing this with us..." from somebody in Barcelona. The same was signed from Japan, the US, places across Canada and around the world.


So, I stopped for a while in the perfect weather, on a shiny weekend morning, and watched him do his work. I watched crowds of people stop & stare. I listened to the sound of the waves gently lapping the shore. I stood covered in sweat under the clear blue sky, all the while thankful as anything that I'm able to live in this city, and that I was able to get out and discover that I still had a bit of balance on my own.

(This week - I'm going to drive to my surgeon's office and deliver to him an expensive bottle of scotch).