Lake St. Peter, Ontario:
I am back staying with our friends here for a few days while R chose to remain in Montreal for the conference. Arrived Weds in time for the concert in the park where I chatted with a couple friends and then headed north the rest of the way. Caught up with Dragonfly and our friends, and BED! Thurs after some discussion, I phoned a friend and made an appointment to talk with him, then went to visit another friend until it was time to meet him. We sat in Tim Horton's and I LISTENED to him for almost 3 hours. It was a good thing to do. I came back and reported the reportable, not breaking any confidences, then went and sat in the car by a lake and enjoyed sunshine sparkling on the water. Listening is hard work!

Evening spent in conversation with 3 good people, talking about living in community and how it needs to be and about values, vision and mission and how to deal with difficult people. Some progress.

Today, I phoned a friend to see if she could lunch but not, so we had a nice chat and I went off to see what other mischief I could get into. Visited with a couple people in Maynooth, then went south and stopped to see a guy I was told was a recluse; listened to him for two hours. Although I had not seen him in over 15 years, nothing much has changed; we still agree on most things and he was glad to see me. I wonder how many days of listening it would take before he had said enough to be able to listen a bit more. He needs to de-clutter his brain.

Then I visited with a potter friend; we had tea and she offered me an ingredient I need for a pottery decoration I want to get back into doing! It is no longer available so this is a BIG deal! Now if I can find the recipe. By now I was feeling ready for a good meal so I drove the distance to my fav eatery and had a good lunch and great, long visit with my owner/friend, to share with total confidence and trust, thoughts, ideas, pieces of our lives.

The weekend traffic heading north was terrible so I took the long, and very beautiful route back north, took almost an hour. Spent about an hour talking with o Dragonfly person and then we all went to Maynooth for the "Talent show". It was already over so I went to the cafe and visited with several women there, old and new friends. An absolute treasure to be where I can do this, where I feel I am a valued member of a very real community.

SO now I have 3 places on my itinerary. This one is more home than the two in Quebec, both of which I would happily give up. This feels like home, only R is not here this time; he needs to be able to de-clutter his life a great deal in order to spend much time this far from Montreal.