Five Years a Writer

The other day, a friend asked me "What has it been like not having the cottage in the background of your mind in this first winter without it?"  I sat with the question, pondering, reflecting, considering. I was glad to have been asked as it caused me to think deeply on this matter, and now I wonder how universal my response is to a wrenching decision that was, I know, also the right decision.  Here's what I wrote in response to my friend's question:  The cottage is in the back of my mind, always. I think of it with longing and love, and also with relief and regret. All the time, all those feelings. Two opposite things can be equally true. I love that place — Clifftop Cottage, on the cliff overlooking Lake Winnipeg. I regret that we no longer own the cottage, but the deeper river of regret that runs through the memories and the longing is that Val and I are no longer young, we are no longer those two young wilderness women able and wanting to take on everything it mea...