Reprieve

Friday 7July06 9:16pm

What a great summer this has become. The weather has been warm during the days and cooler in the evenings so it's easy enough to sleep.

I like that more places are mindful of energy conservation and aren't cranking up the air conditioning to the point where you need to wear polar fleece. I never did get that.

It's funny though how they design condos in Toronto. The majority of them don't have balconies and they have the tiniest windows. Getting any air through them is impossible. The silent implication is that if you want to cool off you either leave your condo (because you have no balcony) or you turn on your air conditioning. Yet the city is asking you to conserve energy. It's ridiculous! And what is with the lack of balconies anyway? Does no one spend time at home?

We work in cubicles all day and go home to boxes at night and wonder why people are filled with rage. We're squashed on streetcars and subways and stand in endless lines for groceries. We've become inconsiderate of others, talk in movie theatres and too loudly on our cell phones in public places. We put our feet up on chairs that don't belong to us. What's going on people?

I've made walking my reprieve purely by misfortune. When I worked in Daycare I was broke. A friend of mine owed me money, which would have been enough to get me through until pay day but he refused to drive down to my apartment to pay me back. I had no money for public transit to get to and from work. So I had to walk.

It took me an hour to walk to work. I walked back and forth for a week. Two hours a day. When I got paid I didn't bother getting a bus pass realizing that I enjoyed the walk. I found the walk relaxing. On the way to work I found the walk pumped up my energy level and gave me the stamina for the daily challenge of child care and better yet the politics forced by my co-workers. On the way home, I found that I left any stresses of the day at Spadina, a half hour into my walk. Plus it was a great work out - 2 hours a day. I added stretches after both walks and I was laughing.

I haven't stopped walking since. When I worked at the Science Centre I walked half the distance to work since it was a two hour walk and took the bus the rest of the way. I walked the two hour trek home most times. And now my current job is only a half hour walk. It makes a huge difference finding ways to get out of doing the salmon run, swimming upstream with all the other fish.

I've got a 24 hour grocery store in my neighbourhood and I buy my groceries at 6 a.m. I avoid the line ups and the people who insist on searching for that elusive exact change that's never at the ready. I stay away from the crowds as much as possible or get places way early so I don't feel rushed or slowed down by the crowds. I do not need to have that same rage, anger, frustration that many people exhibit. If I feel like I have a reprieve from the craziness of life I can tolerate the frustrations that inevitably will come up and enjoy the good things like this great summer weather and all the flowers I seem to be able to smell more than ever this year. And did I mention that I have a friend who has cherry trees in her backyard that are overwhelmed with cherries? I'm getting free cherries!

Where do you find your reprieve?

EY
Living in inspired reprieve...