Young at heart.

Working with kids is undoubtedly helping me stay young at heart.

However, after two weeks of being at Camp, and a third week running a week-long vacation bible school (day camp), I find myself somewhat near exhaustion.

It is the exhaustion that reminds me that while I may feel young at heart, my body continues to age.

Still, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. A few aches and a couple of nights of catching up on my sleep is a small price to pay for the enjoyment of being with the kids.

Watching them play games, create crafts, and learn more about themselves and others is truly rewarding, and helps me learn more about myself, too.

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Back in the City

Anyone who has spent time at camp (whether a cottage or a summer camp) knows how peaceful and relaxing it can be.

One of the things I love best is the sounds of being at camp – the wind in the trees, the waves lapping the beach, birds singing. There is also a lack of certain sounds – traffic, and industry.

Yes, McDougall is close enough to the highway that you can here vehicles passing by, but it is not a constant sound.

One sound we hear in the City that is insidious, always present in the background and occasionally rising above, is that of the Steel Plant. The sounds from the blast furnace, the coke ovens, the gas flares, steam venting, and other noises caused by the various processes fill the background.

Wednesday morning, as I arrived at the church, I could see a plume of steam rising in the distance, and hear the dull roar it created.

It’s a sound that, for the most part, we barely notice, but it is always there.

It takes being away where the only sounds are that of nature to make these man-made sounds more noticeable.

Of course, we can’t just shut the steel plant and other industries down so that we can enjoy more peace and quiet. Likewise the sounds of traffic aren’t going away. That’s just part of life in the City.

But I do enjoy getting away from it, once in a while.

I’ve often thought I could live out in the country, or even in a small town.

In fact, I did live in a smaller town, in the mid-90s. Dundas, just outside Hamilton, had a population of 17,000 when I moved there. Three years later, when I left, it had grown to 21,000.

It was a bustling town, with Highway 8 passing through as King Street West. The sound of traffic was a dull rumble most days, but it was far enough from the steel mills of Hamilton that they couldn’t be heard.

Even as more people moved in, the town still retained it’s small-town atmosphere. Most of the newcomers were buying homes in the new developments sprouting up in the outskirts – what used to be farm fields, unfortunately.

Downtown, however, was just the same friendly place it always was; people walking down the street, popping into the butcher shop and the fruit market, and the many other shops and boutiques, stopping to chat or wave to a friend walking on the other side of the street.

It wasn’t quite Mayberry, but it had its charm.

If one wanted a bit more, a quick drive up Osler Drive brought you to the plaza, with two supermarkets and a handful of chain shops, or one could continue eastbound to Hamilton.

The real advantage, for me, was that by driving either west or north for a mere five minutes and you were in the country, with farms, vegetable stands, straight, lonely stretches of country road, punctuated by the occasional and stereotypical crossroads village.

I spent a lot of time wandering the back roads and byways of southwestern Ontario. For the most part, the land was a bit flat for my liking – growing up in the sight of the granite hills of the Canadian Shield has had its influence.

Still, there are beautiful spots to be found: parks, conservation areas, quaint villages.

Don’t get me wrong – I love it up here, too. But we don’t have the network of roads to explore like there is in southern Ontario.

That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t some beautiful places to discover here. I love taking a drive down Hwy 638, heading through Sylvan Valley and on to Leeburn and eventually Bruce Mines. Or taking one of the side roads, coming through the back way into Desbarats or Thessalon.

I could live back there, but not if I had to commute on a daily basis.

Sure, the commute here is nothing like it is in southern Ontario – no multi-lane expressways or “rush-hour” traffic – but neither are there many (and in some cases, any) good alternate routes should there be a traffic tie-up.

No, if I were to move to the country, or one of the nearby small towns, I would need to work about twenty minutes or a half-hour away. Or, win the lottery!

By no means am I suggesting that the Sault is too busy; certainly there is a more hectic pace to Sudbury than is found here. Aside from the occasional traffic delays on Great Northern Road, one can drive across town in ten to fifteen minutes, and be heading out of the city in no time at all.

Still, there is something about a nice, quiet small town, or a few acres of wooded land in the country that really appeals to me.

But… that’s just my opinion.