I hadn't been on the hidden trail for several months so I was surprised at how overgrown it had become. It wasn’t always like this, the hidden trail changes with the seasons. It's like being in the country even though it is adjacent to the backyards of houses on one side and train tracks on the other side. So, maybe it's a little of the country in the city, not the downtown city but the neighbourhoods just outside of the downtown core. I have always wanted to be near nature and, even as a child, I tried to find places of nature and solitude, birds and insects, and small animals that are in the city. I liked to explore. Today, on the trail, I saw a ground hog, the other day at home I saw a skunk . . . all minor but they are a part of nature and give meaning to life, meaning not found in some of the other more lucrative things people do. As children we used to explore buildings still under construction, we used to go in old abandoned houses, we used to explore different neighbourhoods, we used to ride our bikes anywhere we wanted; I guess we were safe, or safe enough, we never thought about being safe. None of these adventures were told to our parents, why would they be? Our parents had lives of their own and we never thought that we should tell them anything about our lives. And today we still need places like the hidden trail, places in nature where people can be in touch with nature, where people can breath fresh air, walk on the earth instead of concrete and asphalt, where people can get away from the cars, noise, pollution, and other people, places that haven't been destroyed with condos and apartment buildings and roads and highways, where you don't have to see other people or be with them; nature is healing, just being in nature is healing. Nature heals the undiagnosed symptoms of urban life.
Edited: 07 August 2025
