CHRIS SHEPHERD

Lake Effect

COVID has left an indelible mark on everyone’s life. We’ve been fortunate. My partner and I have stayed healthy and we’ve been able to keep our jobs while working from home, so we’ve maintained our middle class income. There’s been some anxiety, but we’ve had ample food and shelter. We haven’t been marked by tragedy as a result of the pandemic, like so may others have. We have a home and all the comforts of it. We’re privileged. Like many privileged people however our mental health has definitely suffered. Again, I’ve been fortunate and with the exception of a bit more anxiety, am still better off than many. One thing I’ve constantly told people though is that walking kept me well. Over the course of the last two years I’ve walked about twelve million steps and covered a distance just shy of ten thousand kilometres. 

One of my walking routes in winter, and probably my most frequent, inevitably ends up at Lake Ontario.

Winter is pretty amazing there.