For several years now, a popular topic has been pondering “what brings you joy?”
And I don’t mean socks neatly rolled and arranged in drawers in color-coded series 
.
The answer for me is simple — being outdoors in nature.
Increasingly arthritic knees and hips be damned (I have good days and not so good ones in that department), within a minute of being out the front door and on my way down a Byrne Creek trail in SE Burnaby, BC, my spirits soar.
Rain or shine.
Let me see a salmon spawning, an eagle soaring, an owl silently staring, and my aches melt away.
It’s that endorphin surge of excercise and the primal heightening of the senses.
We are blessed here in Burnaby, with many salmon-bearing streams and a variety of parks with varied ecosystems.
Forests? Yup. Meadows? Uh-huh. Rivers and streams? Check. Lakes? Roger. Saltwater inlets? Sure.
I walk at least an hour a day, sometimes two or three, as work and other committments allow.