I went for a walk with my friend Kaisa this evening. She lives in my building. We went out and down and across the street and strolled along where hundreds of people were lounging and playing and hanging out. We wound our way along the beach.

Kaisa recently went to Finland and spent a beautiful 10 days at a family cottage, which sits in the middle of green and freshness and at water. The closer I get to leaving for Yellowknife, the clearer a vision of wilderness I have, the more it fills me up. The sun (I imagine brilliance, a piercing pale light). The wind bringing earth smells and water. The sound, an absence of things that whir. Like cars, the hum of the fridge.

It struck me that I now have several beautiful things. They’re about fishing. This is new. I have fished in the past – but it’s been many years since I had a fishing pole. And I don’t remember the last time I had things like lures, brand new ones, shiny. I bought them not two weeks ago, and it’s just really dawned on me how pretty they are. I thought I’d show you a few.

Gibbs lures

Now, as you can see, I’m no photographer. But I sure think these lures are pretty. Here are a couple of others:

Mepps lures

And here are my floats:

Fishing floats

I put them here because they make me smile. I’m not sure why.

Now that I’ve talked about the tools I’ll be using to snag a fish and eat it, I’m closer to the reality of ending the life of a living creature. This troubles me a bit, even though I regularly eat fish that I personally haven’t killed. I’m also grateful for the fish that I eat. To the fish. Thankful. Like the fish did me some kind of favour by appearing on my plate. But not in a flip way. Or maybe a bit flip and humorous but also with joy and not cynical.

Not that I over-analyze.