Saturday, March 31, 2012

Meditation On The Ride Home

 

There is a stretch of highway, running between Sudbury and Barrie, that I simply love. There's a wildness to the terrain and, even though only a couple of hours from Toronto, a true sense of nature. I've driven that road often over the years as I've done a fair bit of work in Ontario's northern communities. What strikes me about that highway the growing presence of Inukshuks that dot the highway. On top of rocky crags, in little nooks created in the rock face, perilously high on small ledges - there they are.

No where is seen the work of paint cans and graffiti tagging. No where is seen destruction or vandalism. No where. Just these markers, reminders of our past and our humanity, stand as testaments who what hands can do when they endeavour to create, not destroy.

We passed dozens of them.

I didn't tire of looking for them, and looking at the amazing way they've been made using only gravity as glue, only balance to guarantee endurance. Everyone was different. Every one made in the shape of humanity, and as humanity is vastly different so were these. I tried and I tried and I tried to imagine who had made these. But I couldn't.

And I didn't care.

Because all I needed to know, I already knew.

These were made by those who used their time to create. These were made by those who wanted to leave behind more, not less. These were made by people who honoured history by creating history.

I love that stretch of highway.

Inukshuk Way we call it.

The Inukshuk has several meanings - but for me, on that road, it simply means that someone wanted to give a gift to those who pass by. A gift that reminds us that we are part of history and that we can leave behind that which we create or that which we destroy.

And it's our choice. 

Maybe the most important one we make. 

5 comments:

Tamara said...

I'd love to see that! My friend always builds little cairns on the rocky beach of Lake Superior when we camp in northern Minnesota. Mine are never as tall as hers!

John R. said...

Deeply moving. It is more than likely that many of us whiz past these beautiful creations without even noticing them on our way to wherever to do whatever. This notification and call to stop, look and listen to the ancient/past creators is a powerful and much needed request for all of us right now. We seem to be speeding towards destruction and decay as a society and species. Thank you for showing us that maybe there is hope in the rocks. Wish I was closer to this stretch of highway. I will find my Inukshuk somewhere here in NY....thanks for this meditation pre-palm Sunday!

Unknown said...

Dave, I ran across this and felt you needed to see it. I don't know this woman, nor her son. But I do know a tragedy when I see it.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/235549/3/Disabled-student-sidelined-during-choral-performance

Belly (Liz McLennan) said...

This is lovely and I re-posted it to my FB wall. I love these guideposts, as does my dad - he's got tucked all over his house, tiny ones and loves to create bigger ones outside.

Princeton Posse said...

Hey, those Inushuk's are making their way West. Several here on the Hope-Princeton Highway.