My 2 Second Shelf Life

"Wade in the Water
Wade in the Water, children...
If you don't believe I've been redeemed
Wade in the Water"

All my life, I've lived close to a body of water.

I can't imagine it any other way.
If I were to move someplace that didn't have water close by, I would miss it terribly.

Every morning, I drive along the lake shore on my way to work, and sometimes I pull into the lot close by the Sunnyside Pavillion and walk through the park to the water and just stand there and look out.

When I was young, I used to walk off of busy Queen Street, and across the walkway over the Gardiner Expressway to swing on the swings facing the water.
I'd swing out and I felt like I was swinging over the water.

I'd climb over the giant stegosaurus in the park and sit there and look out.

There aren't any swings in that park anymore, and last year when they were revamping the park, every morning, as I drove by, I silently begged them not to take Steggy away...'cause you know how Toronto just loves to destroy memories...but they only painted him, and moved him over a bit.

It's comforting to be able to see something, just the way it was when you were small and without a care in the world.

A touchstone.