Five Years a Writer

Beginnings are exciting, though we don’t always know that that ‘first’ of whatever it is — that start — will evolve into something more: the beginning of…well, the beginning of whatever it is that continues on. So it was with my relationship with Val. Introduced by our mutual friend, Randa, I was immediately drawn to Val’s energy and spirit of adventure (she had been leading women on wilderness canoe trips for several years) — and her fiercely Scandinavian-red hair (see photo, from 1997). Among other things, I also liked her politics and her sense of humour. We were both encumbered by existing primary relationships, but that fact did not dampen the sparks that flew between us. Over the next few months, the realization dawned on me that the very unknown properties of a relationship with Val were more appealing to me than the very known parameters of my existing situation. But how to move? How to change? Then Val wrote me a letter professing her love and commitment, and I saw the future ...