Maybe for the first time in 25 years, I'm grateful to have a home and it's great to be back! This river called the Gatineau has been flowing past my home for almost 5 months and I've missed it terribly. During the time it took for 50 million liters of water to drift by my home, inevitable environmental change is now rocking my little world. Some call it human progress, I call it ugly. I now see hydro wires across the river and new houses being built where there were only rocks and trees last June. Even my beloved ancient willow tree across the way has been hacked and manicured to suit a new neighbor's dock The convicted ex-senator's bright lights across the way still block out the stars, but his efforts to change the flood plain laws so he could illegally build on floodplain brings poetic justice with all those new houses being built around his big ass home. I wonder if he or anyone gets the irony? I see new docks sprouting out from the riverbanks, some with solar lights to add further insult to mother nature. But as the cops said last summer, "this is not your river Mr. Lalonde".
What saddens me the most is what looks like the loss of Wakefield's most precious natural resource, the Wakefield Spring. I've been there a couple of times since I've returned and I'm absolutely shocked and saddened to see a trickle flowing from the taps where it flowed strong last June - just as it has for the last 50 years. I heard that the spring actually stopped flowing on at least two occasions this summer. What mystifies me is that no one seems to be saying or doing anything about this! I guess the bastards who built the new highway and dug the nearby quarry have altered this ancient aquifer. They won and we lost. No apologies and no explanation or compensation. So many know it alls told me that there was no way we could alter this aquifer, this force majeur of nature. No use crying over what's broken I guess.
I'm so upset at seeing all this change over 5 months that I feel overwhelmed. I feel lost in the wilderness, too far away and removed from societies pet interests and concerns. I feel nothing I say or ever did will make a difference. It takes courage and strength to love and to care. Judging by the many good people I know out here who have protested these attacks on our free flowing spring water, I know I'm not the only one who feels overwhelmed and powerless. Maybe we stop caring because it's just too hard to go against the grain. Make no mistake, I'm still happy and grateful for coming back home. I just don't like or recognize what has happened around my little country home. I can always leave and find another river to live on. Maybe the leading edge of change is thin but the wedge is wide!
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