“Tut tut child,” said the duchess. “Every thing’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
I’m fresh off an airplane from St. John’s Newfoundland, a.k.a. “the rock.” Weather hit the day of my departure and turned a four-day long weekend into a 10-day adventure of Newfoundland culture.
Yes a ‘come from away’ (Newfoundland lingo for foreigner) was stranded and stayed. But, my hosts were good natured about the fact their house guest had become a border
Newfoundlanders took the storm in stride, everyone tucked up tight in their jellybean-coloured houses. No one crowded the street to get to work. Even city busses stopped running – too dangerous on the city’s steep hills. Think San Francisco’s typography and you’ll be close.
Grown, employed adults took a snow day. I heard nothing about taking paperwork and a laptop to work from home. No one said they planned to drive to the office despite the raging blizzard. Newfoundlanders knew it was pointless to hop in the car to brave slippery roads desperately trying to avoid parked cars, houses and snowplows.
My new found friends recognized, with the astuteness of Buddhist monks, this simple truth: when Mother Nature is in a temper let her be. To pit your will against her on open road or on the north Atlantic is perilous.
Finally, stranded on an enormous rock, surrounded by the emerald waters of the frigid North Atlantic I found the moral of the situation: when something is beyond your control, give in graciously. It’s a lesson I’ve struggled to acknowledge and accept many times.
Sunlight dances off the North Atlantic by the lighthouse at the entrance to the St. John's harbour.
But, this time I laughed through it all. I saw my travel delays as a gift – an opportunity to experience more of St. John’s. The repeated flight cancellations and re-bookings became nothing more than colourful anecdotes – a funny tale told with laughter rather than frustration. And thanks to Mother Nature I:
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witnessed local artist Scott Goudie print his new mezzotint of the Churchill falls in Labrador;
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tasted more of St. John’s local brews – Storm Raspberry Wheat, Quidi Vidi Honey Brown and Dominion.
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photographed the famous jellybean houses, Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, and the open ocean bathed in brilliant sunshine.
In the end the come from away, who was stranded and stayed found Zen in the tribulations of winter travel.
