Night Flow

Kelowna, British Columbia

Life can grant us truly amazing experiences, if we are open to them. Experiences of serendipity don’t usually come with announcements or engraved invitations. In the late afternoon Dwight and I rode our bikes down the Mission Creek Greenway for some twenty kilometers. We enjoyed riding, sharing the trail with a montage of runners, cyclists, and young mothers pushing their baby carriages. This must be a user-friendly part of the world, as I received more smiles in twenty kilometers than I got in four thousand kilometers getting here to Paradise.

Along the way Dwight asked me to stop and look at the river and imagine salmon jumping upstream to spawn. As he finished his sentence, a very real salmon jumped, and then dozens of them made themselves known to us, jumping against strong currents in their bids to give life to the next generation. I was entranced to think of the incredible journey these crimson colored swimmers made from distant Pacific waters up the Columbia River, up several other rivers, and then across a series of lakes to end up in this small streambed before me. I felt like I had been on a journey to the great wilds of Nansen’s Farthest North. I never expected to see salmon spawning when I got up this morning.

My favorite time of day has always been the edge of night that comes at sunset. The cerulean sky darkens, and suddenly it erupts in crimson, lavender, and indigo. We were just passing the public beach when heavenly spectral fireworks detonated above us. Two busloads of children poured out of their yellow carriages and dissipated their pent-up energies, frolicking in the lake waters. Their happy peals of laughter added to the symphony of night sounds. Pleasant snippets of conversation with one of the bus drivers revealed him to be from Paris. He went from an urban paradise to this lakeside heaven here in the Okanogan valley. Lucky man.

On the Greenway and on the beach I had splendid experiences but still was just an observer looking in. On the street I actually became a full participant in the flow of life. We had just left the beach and were riding back towards downtown when suddenly we found ourselves in a cloud of some fifty cyclists, skateboarders, and roller bladers, dressed in wedding gowns, tuxedoes, and other formal dress. Some of these bikes had blue neon lights projecting pools of sapphire onto the ground. Skateboarders were pulling strings of empty cans as newly weds are wont to do. We were invited to join this unlikely apparition of the night, the only requirement for membership being a desire to travel by bike or board or blade. Suddenly, I knew what it was like to be caught up completely in the moment, swimming in the stream of life. Unlike those salmon swimming against the current, we flowed effortlessly with this organic train of life. This crowd swept through neighborhoods, undulating around corners, bifurcating as needed for obstacles, laughing heartily. It was intoxicating to be so caught up in the grandness of living in the now, the worries of the past and fears of the future consigned to darkness beyond the edges of blue neon.

Strangely, I felt underdressed for the first time ever on my bike. We were invited to join the group next Monday for a repeat performance. We marked it on the white board Dwight and Barbara keep to plan their myriad activities. Perhaps I should have brought a tuxedo on the plane with me after all. I do like a good party.