Buffalo Pound Park: Then and Now

Entering Buffalo Pound from the north (Wikipedia)

I went out and had me some fun with the family at one of the closer provincial parks to the city where I live. It's in a river valley that cuts into the endless flat prairie. In other words, there's hills, something I'm not used to.

The last time we were there was about two years ago. I know because I took lots of pictures. That's about all I could do then. I was very concerned at the time with how little I could do and how I was letting down, if not embarrassing my family because of the unfortunate condition I had allowed myself to descend into.

It was all I could to walk to the beach from the parking lot and sit for awhile. I didn't enjoy myself, not only because I couldn't do anything, but because I was tense and generally sore and tired. But thus was my life at the time, the life I thought I would always have until one day the lights would go out.

I thought about the contrast between this visit and my last visit to the park. This time I was cycling up and down hills with my eight year old son. We had a great time looking at wildlife walk right in front of us as we glided down hills on our bikes, enjoyed the silence of the quiet park in the shoulder season and I had that missing energy and pep to live my life (almost) as I want to.

I didn't take any pictures this time. I was too busy living.