Mystery Island

Location: A condo balcony on the 7th floor facing the beautiful Ontario Lake in downtown Toronto.

Mood: Upbeat, where imagination runs wild. The dreamer in me watches the island across the lake and wonders who lives there?

The Trip: A ferry ride with locals, city dwellers, and tourists gets me to the island. What follows is diagonally opposite of what I imagined.

The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A group of islands just across the downtown area of Toronto. It also houses the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and plenty of yacht clubs.

Huge green spaces, serene and peaceful. If you wish for some activity there is plenty for the kids and if you wish for the sand, there are the beaches. The community that lives there is cut off from the city yet just a boat ride close to the city. A great balance I would think.

A popular tourist and recreational destination. Cycling, Kayaking, or Golfing. It’s yours to choose. Personally, I would bask under a sun umbrella, on a comfortable Muskoka chair, watch the clouds glide, and hear the chirping birds and hyperactive squirrels prance in a world of their own. Maybe read a book or better still write stories or poetries. Nature has its way of giving you cues on what to write about and helping a flow of words that so effortlessly come from the heart.

A day for me at that Mystery island was no more a mystery. It’s a world of its own. It’s a space where you can just be yourself, do as you please, and return home as the sun sets or later only to go back there when the heart and mind need a nature break.

I am glad, thanks to my kids I had my day out on the island. The future is a blank page, I may not be around this part of the city to hop on to a boat and take the trip to my mystery land. Glad I did it now and glad I solved the mystery that will forever be a part of my sweet memories of downtown Toronto.

Life has its ways of throwing you opportunities like a rope flung at you from the sky. Grab it, hold on to it, and let it take you places, nooks, and corners of our wonderful world. Never let go of that rope for you never know, it may not come your direction for a long time.

Cheers to trips – long or short for this is what adds up as chapters that make a life!