Noticing the smallest differences

It is a quiet morning here on Nexwlelexwm/Bowen Island. The equinox has come and gone and the mornings are darker and cooler. We have stopped changing the clocks in this part of the world, so the mornings will only ever grow darker by the clock until the solstice. I'll be walking in pitch black in a month or so. My partner is the walking champion of our household, taking her morning and afternoon walks everyday as a non-optional part of her morning. She is the one that walks around in every weather. Our walks are different. Hers takes her through the forest and meadows of the Terminal Creek valley and mine skirts the north side of Mannion Bay along David Road, crosses the point-with-no-name through the Miller's Landing neighbourhood and visits the tiny cove of Sunrise Beach at Miller's Landing. I always walk with a head full of music and thoughts, but my eyes and ears are wide open and in that way, walking is less the action and more the practice of noticing. Every morning I am…