EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALSeptember
11, 1999
Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland
My Holiday in Switzerland
So that’s it. In exactly two weeks we’ll be leaving France and returning to
Canada, first to Halifax, then Toronto and finally Vancouver, visiting with friends and
family along the way. A year to the day, the exact date we arrived in London last
year, September 25th. Sitting here in this Swiss chalet, a holiday place
enjoyed for hiking and skiing, I’m thinking about how lots of people travel, and for
most, with the restrictions of work and family and finances, the holiday lasts for two
weeks. Like today would be the first day of my holiday, and in two Saturdays I would be
going home. Imagining my timeline like this puts things in an entirely different
perspective – in fact, perhaps it will make the next two weeks – our last two
weeks – last longer.
The mountains are behind me, picking up the end of the day in something mauve and
delicate like a baby’s blanket – a-glow. The valleys are swatches – gentle
transitions between formidable peaks: Cabane (2525m), Scex Rouge (2971m), Les Diablerets
(3209m). Everything’s bathed in dramatics, extremes, great heights, great divides,
great ascents. Everything’s permanent and solid and masterful in its design, and yet
totally unpredictable. The neat thing is that you can decide to go up there and walk
around and check it out…you can DO IT, and it rewards something you barely envisioned
when you started out.
