August 31st, 2016

What a difference a day makes.  Today I’m gainfully employed in a job in the field of Outdoor and Environmental Education that’s spanned 38 years.  Tomorrow I’ll wake up to a new routine of retired life.  This is a day that, even over the course of the summer holidays, has always been “somewhere down the road”.  And now it’s here.  I’ll make my last visit to the Blair Outdoor Education Centre today with an entry key that works.  Tomorrow I’ll be locked out.

Blair feels like “home” and I’ve been incredibly relaxed and energized in those surroundings over the years.  I will miss arriving in the morning, the flood of sound and smells that immediately greet me as the car door cracks open.  It’s like walking into another world, both literally and metaphorically.  I loved fall mornings in the 1980’s steering down the twisting driveway at Laurel Creek with the forest ahead in full colour.  Whether the ultimate outcome of each work day has been awesome or awful, my inner peace will have been sated.  It’ll be a challenge to find another daily routine to satisfy that natural high.

And I’ll miss, in a couple of weeks, the arrival of the first classes of kids.  My love of the outdoors is second only to having had the opportunity to share the extraordinary beauty and complexity of nature with others.  The “wow” factor when kids get excited over bugs and birds is a pretty powerful prescription.  And a needed one.  When I walk through the fields and forests, I’m both consciously and unconsciously acknowledging, identifying, associating each sound and sight – song sparrow here, tree frog there, aster to the left, hackberry to the right.  It is intimate. It’s sometimes overwhelming. And I hope it’s been infectious.  If my passion has piqued the curiosity or aroused the interest in our natural world in any of the students, teachers, or parent volunteers that I’ve worked with over the years, then I would gauge my career a success.  I’ve had a purpose in life, a worthy one.  From Camp Tawingo (1977-80) to the Ganaraska Forest Centre (1980-81) and the Waterloo Region District School Board (1982-2016), it’s been a privilege and whole lot of fun pursuing it.

Over the next few weeks and months there will be days when I question the wisdom of retiring. “Why did I leave such a great gig behind?”  And yet there is some satisfaction in knowing that I’ve made, I think, a valuable contribution, and that there are interests and experiences I will now have the time to explore.

I’m planning a cycling outing on the first day of school to both reward myself, and to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors as I pedal my way along some scenic  backroads.  Best wishes to all…

Peter

A last dunk in the cold, clear waters of Blair Creek…

[wpvideo qZ6AbQQ5]