The third day of the expedition is a major challenge for our team of two voyageur canoes on the Poisson-Blanc Reservoir. A challenge because it’s a full day in nature, departing from a beach on Mystery Island, paddling for hours and, at the end of the day, setting up camp once again, this time on the shores of the reservoir.
The third day of a four-day expedition, is simultaneously the start of the adventure, the end of the expedition and its high point. Time flies faster than the water beneath our canoes and there is not a minute to waste. In our case, we don’t seize this opportunity the usual way. We don’t need to go further, spend more money, or invite more people. Not at all, the only thing we have to do to fully benefit from our situation, is to be silent, all of us.
And to be silent, all of us together, all we need to do is find a good place. In this instance, we have chosen to climb on top of the Elephant Wall, on the Western shore of the Reservoir. From atop this rocky promontory we can see all the islands to the southeast. Once on location, silence comes. We first continue looking at the world, the pine needles balancing in the wind, the minuscule canoes navigating all the way below, the passing clouds… Then, we start hearing the various components of the silence: the wind rustling, the waves crackling, and the smell of the leaves. This silence lasts one hundred years of a mere five minutes. Each one of us is alone, but we form a group no matter. All together we live the moment, the simplest of all, yet so difficult to feel. “When else do we make time to live such moments?” asks Simon, our physician.
Reaching that summit was quite an experience, a challenge for the group, but also a personal challenge for many participants who are still feel the side effects of their treatments. The group, the sharing, are the engines of the On the Tip of the Toes Foundation. They are the reason we slow down our pace for the slower one among us, the reason we synchronize our paddling, we open our ears to listen to the more timid among us, and open our eyes to watch the most discreet ones.
Then after nightfall, on a small rocky point, after setting up the dome and our evening meal, we sat in a circle. Then, with a single word, each one of us tried to summarize his/her personal experience: harmony, cooperation, letting go, learning, silence… Warmed by the flames, lit by the lantern, each one of us detailed the primer of his/her expedition; and the chatting continued. Here, all the participants understand each other, the individual experience may have been different, but the ordeal is the same. The participants each tell their story, they make jokes, they marvel, they speak in detail of the diagnostics, the moving from one hospital to another, those (infamous) hospital meals, the chemo, the brunt of the treatments… Me?… me who have not lived through any of this, me… I listen to them and hear them laugh under the stars…