Back in December friends who live nearby in the town of Picton came for a visit. We built a bonfire, put out chairs. Baileys was poured into coffees. Children got sugar-high on hot chocolate.
The kids hardly remained fireside, though it was quite cold, the wind coming off the lake. we watched as my children ran around, joyful, sticks in their little hands, and the shimmering water beyond and the sun setting into that water, all of it like some impossibly ethereal moment out of a Terence Malick film. our friend L. said to me, this will change your children. what they experience here. being out here in this.
Three months later, as our little inlet of water begins to melt, I think of all the times we’ve taken the kids skating on that pond, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Which to them it now is.
