Summers in Canada

Eastern Canada has become one of my favorite summer destination spots. I’ve never experienced anything quite like Canadian “cottage” life. Frozen solid during the harsh winter months, the endless miles of lakes are reborn every summer. As the ice melts away the waters glisten in the sunshine, as if calling out to visitors, urging them to embrace themselves in it before it’s too late. Perhaps it is because the moment is so fleeting that Canadian’s from all over the country flock to these lakes to savor as much time as they have with them before they disappear again. The first time I went to one of these lakes I was stunned by the pure magnitude of them. It’s an endless maze of twists and turns that play games with your eyes. You may find a lake that seems cozy and intimate, but with just one turn you find yourself amongst another vast, endless body of water, instantly reduced to an insignificant speckle in a grander scheme.

There is something oddly comforting in feeling insignificant. All your troubles and stresses and even your hopes and desires, don’t feel so dire. You can rid yourself of the dripping tension that is weighing you down. My anguish is not the end of the world, this is the world, and it is bigger than me. At the lake each day blends into the next. I spend my mornings reading, contemplating, writing. I spend my evenings cooking with friends, talking, playing games. These are moments that the chaos of city life often robs me of. At night the lake is so quiet, it’s loud. There’s an eerie silence, where you feel you may be the only human for miles. You could spend days at the lake and never see another soul.

This kind of escape that has become essential for me. I was always convinced that the city could offer me everything I needed. I now know that what makes cities so dynamic, energetic and groundbreaking are the same virtues that make us depleted, anxious and lost. I need to step away from it once in a while, reconnect with myself and the world around me, take time to think and feel without constant distraction and appreciate the things I so often take for granted. Lake Muskoka has done that for me.

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. One of my favorite books of the year.