On Sunday mornings I allow myself to get excited about the world that I haven’t seen – which is much of it. I envision myself on passenger ships steaming into ports and writing in a spiral bound notebook my first impressions of the living panorama. Doors open. I flick through pages and pages of blogs showing me what I haven’t seen or smelled or tasted. It makes my adventurous heart pause and race and yearn.
Here are a few images of places and experiences I hope to capture in my own words and photos some day.
I spent all of last week in the beautiful city of St. John’s Newfoundland. I haven’t been to “Sin Jawns” since 2006 and it was really great to see all of my friends again. I walked the downtown streets a number of times and I have the blisters to prove it. There was a lot of rain, but when the sun did shine, boy was it ever magnificent.
Between me and my friends Jody and Savannah we checked out:
Bistro Sofia
Smoke’s Poutinerie
Rocket Bakery
Rosie the Rebel
Afterwords
Freak Lunchbox
Hempware
The Newfoundland Chocolate Company
The Natural Health Store
and a bunch of box stores and the Avalon Mall
And of course, the popular touristy destinations like the Basilica, the National War Memorial, the Rooms, Commissariat House, Signal Hill, and more. I also got a special treat from my best friend Savannah. Savannah plays the drums and is taught weekly by a very popular St. John’s artist. She took me to one of her favorite spots in town to play and played “Paradise City” for me. Rather fitting, and I was so proud of her. I also met her drum teacher who was just as awesome as she described.
It was a great week. My eyes were opened to an entirely new way of life. I’m used to living in towns with a population under 10,000 so it’s nice to see how the other side lives sometimes. Turns out we’re all weird. Haha.
A couple of weeks ago my Uncle wrote on my Facebook wall and said, “Life begins when fear ends.” This was a response to me posting and saying I had to make several flights to the north coast of Labrador. Visiting communities along the coast was not what worried me, I just really hate to fly.
But I did it. And yes, I did get sick! But it was worth every second. The people I met, the things that I saw, the things that my camera and recorder were able to capture…there are no words.
Now, I can’t share any of this with you as it was a work project. BUT, I can show you the video that I made with the material I captured.
I let myself be okay with everything that was happening around me. I put down any and all guards and said, “Okay, let’s do this.”
I also produced this video back here on the ground. The ending terrified me a little, not gonna lie.
And today, today something completely unexpected happened. I went to the store to buy soap. Yes, soap. Please read on so that you don’t just think I’m a dirt bag. So I went to get soap, then once I did a little shopping I decided to go for a drive. I drove down to Terrington Basin (known as ‘the dock’ to Goose Bay residents), and when I got there I saw a work colleague out on the ice snow sailing. And well, this happened:
So you see, life outside of the comfort zone really isn’t that bad. I’m not saying I’ll be skydiving. But I won’t be pissing away my time in my bedroom anymore either.
colorofoutdoors.com 