Not a Stick

I am still on a high after just returning from BC. The warmer (albeit-wetter) weather, the beckoning mountains, the calming waters all provide such a spectacular platform for a healthier lifestyle, conducive to growth, awakening and awe! It was on a hike in Lighthouse Park that I began to ponder life, as one so often does in such an awe-inspiring environment. I noticed all of the hundreds of “deadhead” logs floating in the ocean. These logs, presumably from a logging boat, were ambling along at different paces; some fully above the water while others meandered partially immersed below, bobbing to some random rhythm to the surface. Some looked like they had been caught in a current, rock or pushed by winds, were clustering along the shoreline. These logs made me of a children’s book called “Not a Stick” by Antoinette Portis. On each page, a character shows with conviction how they are not holding a stick but an imaginary inanimate object. This clever author opened the world of imagination and creativity for the readers and became one of my favourite books to begin a drama class. With some ingenuity, a stick could be anything and could go anywhere that the creator could imagine. From the shores of the Pacific, it struck me that we are all like the sticks in the children’s book. Each of us is the creator of our own lives and we have the choice to use our imagination to be anything and go anywhere we want. While, like the sticks in the ocean, we may have external elements outside of our control, we also have the power to be more, more than just a stick. We can be whatever we can imagine we can be! We have to see it. We have to believe it. It was quite a liberating and inspirational thought from the Vancouver shoreline! I’m not a stick…I am a writer! Your turn, I am not a stick—I am a…