Medicine Lake in Jasper Provincial Park is a spooky place. The native people from long ago say it has mystical powers, as the lake drains in the winter time and replenishes itself in the spring. There is an underground cave system that allows the water to disappear then the melting glacier wash fills in the basin when the weather warms up. Truly a wonder to behold. The day I went to see this
there were few people visiting the lake, it was a cloudy dreary and of an on rainy day. My mood was kinda the same. (mostly because this trip was me “reliving” my childhood by visiting all the places my parents had taken my sister and I to on our first ever trip to Jasper in the 60s with the old photos for proof!)
A lone figure was lurking along the water’s edge. and the he stopped and stood upright as if he was contemplating the stunning view, and the eternal cycle of the mystical waters. It was my shot!
As he stood there for several minutes, I too sat there, and thought about the magnitude of these great mountains, the unspeakable beauty of where I was, and how I hoped that this scene (minus the guy) would remain just as perfect forever. I thought about how insignificant our day to day problems can be in context to the vastness of time – 100 years from now will anyone remember?
So while there are a few threads from the past that I will let disintegrate and pass into the abyss, there are some I will keep forever, and some that keep challenging me to reweave them into the fabric of my life, as they recede and resurface like the perpetually reappearing waters of Medicine Lake.