Though our wooded lot is by no means lakeside property, if I wander up our road far enough and don’t stop, eventually I’ll get soaking wet. This road, same as every north-south running road in our area, ends abruptly at Lake Ontario. Here, to go north is to head for a sprawling body of water. I like that certainty, how it orients me. It gives me a sense of direction.
I drive to Hamlin Beach and visit the lake pretty regularly. But I wouldn’t walk to the lake from my house. It’s got to be ten miles away. My sixteen year old, however, for over a year now, has made it her goal to walk all the way to Lake Ontario. She tries pretty often, walking, walking, walking. Usually, especially now with the shortening days, it grows dark before she even reaches the halfway point. Then my husband or I get the call: “Please pick me up?” Afterward, she reports on what she noticed as she walked, the doe with her fawn, the fox, the feral cat. “They finally cut down all the corn,” she’ll tell us. “What did that empty building covered in vines used to be?” she’ll ask. [Read more…] about Wending Her Way
