Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Last 10 Years . . .




In spite of my Ontario Wanderer Instagram and Blog name, during this past decade I have wandered less than any other decade of my life. I have, in fact, only lived at one address, with Fleur-Ange Lamothe, for the whole decade which is the first time in my life that I have been at one address for 10 years. (During the other 6 decades of my life I had 21 other addresses in addition to being homeless for a few months; I  wandered through 32 states, all of the Canadian Provinces, one Canadian Territory and 15 countries.) 

During this decade I only wandered in 2 new countries and have done the majority of my wandering within 20 km of home. (Well, there was the 480 km walk that I did with Fleur-Ange and her friend Pauline from Montreal to Massachusetts in 2014….)

During earlier decades I spent a lot of time swimming, cross country skiing, biking, canoe tripping, hiking, leading wild flower walks and running in addition to working as a student, camp maintenance worker, lifeguard, swimming instructor, child care worker and elementary school teacher before retiring from work. 

This decade I have volunteered as a worker at an organic farm, been a helper in the Royal Botanical Garden Herbarium, volunteered with Fleur-Ange as a co-wild flower walk leader and continued long distance running. 

Other than being happy at staying at one address for ten years, I am most pleased to have finished 6 five km races, 11 ten km races, 1 twelve and a half km cross country race, 13 half marathons races, 5 thirty km Round-the-Bay races and 2 marathons.


I wonder if I can keep running for another decade.