On Monday morning we took it easy, even slept in a bit. But as I stepped outside, I noticed the clouds were actually beginning to move away. The weather forecasters could be wrong, couldn’t they? We quickly began to pack lunches, seek out rain gear – just in case – and load up the canoe, and soon were heading out to Bowness to “conquer the river.”

Ahead of me beside the path, less than a block from the overpass, I see more scribbled paint, this time on Millbank Self Storage Works. I stop and pay attention. Clearly visible amongst some flowery spray-painted figures I read: You’ve got too much stuff. The irony that these words appear on a storage unit does not escape me. Why is it that storage facilities are flourishing in our society? I remember my recent frustration in trying to arrange space in our cluttered garage to store our four bikes.

Jeremy had all the time in the world…. I saw a man, covered with snow and grief, kneeling beside the cross. Faintly I could hear him saying his last farewell to Mary Jane: “I will miss you. You were such an angel. I know you will be there for me when I get to heaven. Just open the door for me when I get there. I love you.”