There’s nothing better than
being first. So I was ecstatic on Wednesday, Oct. 17 when I became the very
first Canadian to get high as smoking marijuana became legal in Canada.
I had planned to be the
first and sat patiently Tuesday evening, watching the clock. The new law would
take effect at midnight.
Others also had plans to be
first. Marijuana stores prepared for long line-ups. Thousands were queuing in
anticipation of lighting up and being the first to soar. Video cameras were
poised to record the magic moments when the very first legal puffs drifted into
the night.
None of those news crews
would be at my place on the lake to record my historic first. But I didn’t
care. I just wanted to be the first.
Midnight in Newfoundland is
10:30 p.m. our time. So at exactly 10:30 I stepped outside and began to make
history.
I walked a path through my
woods, listening to the night sounds. Almost immediately my mind began to
expand and my senses sharpened. I was getting high very quickly.
There is no better place to
get high than in the woods. City streets won’t do it. Even urban parks are not
the same. And, obviously never inside the house.
Newly fallen leaves
whispered beneath my floating footsteps. An owl hooted to its mate and from across
the lake floated the sad and lonely yips of a coyote.
There was a rustle and thump
off to my left. Perhaps a raccoon setting off in search of something to burgle
with those nimble little fingers. Or a bear knocking over a stump in hopes of
finding some morsel of grubs and ants – another paw full of protein before
denning up for its winter sleep.
The sounds reminded me that
I am just one of many creatures sharing these woods. We all use the forest
differently but we all share the same grave responsibility – to respect it and take
from it only what we truly need and leave it natural for those who come behind
us.
I lurch unsteadily down the
dark trail to the lake where a brilliant autumn moon sprinkles diamonds across
the gently rippled waters. The first people to this lake knew this moon as Mshkawji
Giizis, the Freezing Moon, which reminds us to prepare ourselves physically and
mentally for the lean, cold months ahead.
In my elevated state I see
more brightly the constellations accompanying the Freezing Moon.
There is Taurus the Bull,
which some ancients saw as a symbol of sexual love. Also Aquila the Eagle who
carries Zeus’ messages down to we pitiful humans on earth.
And of course Aquarius
spilling water from his stone jar over a multitude of stars.
Aquarius tells me to dip my
finger into the lake. It is cool, where less than one month ago it was still
warm enough for swimming. The coolness will intensify until the lake stiffens
and its newly-hardened surface starts to collect snow.
The coolness, the falling
leaves and the birds winging south make some people sad, even angry. They don’t
like change and want everything to remain the same.
Authoritarians like Hitler,
Stalin and Trump try to block change but ranting against it and building walls and
other barriers cannot stop it.
Nature teaches us that we
should accept change. Learn to appreciate it. Adapt to it.
Nature’s lesson is that
change is renewal. When autumn leaves turn, die and fall to the earth their
decaying bodies bring the soil nutrients that help foster new growth.
Those enriched soils provide
us and other animals the things we need or desire. They even grow plants used
to get us high – barley for beer, rye and corn for whiskeys, grapes for wine and
cannabis plants that produce marijuana.
Those are things that temporarily
lift us above our problems. They make us feel better for a short time but they
are an insignificant part of nature.
Nature, which embodies the
essential qualities of life on this planet, is far more powerful than any
individual plant. It can’t be smoked, drank or eaten. It can be consumed only
by the body’s senses and when absorbed produces the most magnificent of highs.
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