Masihivandana.com

This past weekend was an extra long weekend for me. Our office was closed on Friday and then with Labour Day on the Monday, I had four days off. The Labour Day weekend, as it is officially known here in North America, spells the end of the summer holidays and the beginning of a new school year.
We wanted to do something with the boys and it was suggested to us by our friends that we join them and go out to a provincial park about 200 kms away from where we live. It is called ‘Sandbanks Provincial Park’, so we left on Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight in a Holiday Inn at Trenton, famous because it houses the Canadian Forces and is known as the Canadian Forces Base. The first night we went out for dinner and the kids wanted to have Pizza, we found this ‘Pizza Pizza’ in another town close by - and we found the slowest Pizza Pizza in Ontario. I tell you it was almost breakfast time by the time we got served.
After dinner we rushed back to the Hotel to enjoy the swimming pool, we stayed there until 11:00 PM which was closing time for the pool - so we were effectively kicked out of there by the staff. Back in the room we watched ‘Surf’s Up’ with the kids - wasn’t a fantastic movie, and then we eventually went to bed around 12:45 AM !!
Breakfast was at 10:00 Am - bacon & eggs & sausages & all the other good stuff and then finally we were off to ‘Sandbanks’. Sandbanks has a lovely beach and the weather was perfect, the sun was out and the water was warm. The best thing was that you could walk out into the water up to your neck and even better that there was just sand - no rocks or sea weed which can make walking barefoot a challenging exercise. We had a lot of fun, infact I can’t remember going to a beach and having so much fun, my wife jumped in as well and enjoyed getting wet. We went for a long walk on the beach, had MacDonald’s burgers, since we hadn’t got our cooking gear with us.
It was a great end to the summer holidays. Had we stayed at home the boys would have simply been glued to their PS2/TV/Computer which was not acceptable, this turned out to be such a fantastic alternative. Its time for bed now and I am looking at myself in the washroom mirror - ‘What’s with the redness around my shoulders and why is my back so itchy and hot?’ I call out to my wife to check this out. Guess what?? I’ve got sunburnt …. What?? How can that be? I am from India, I can’t get sunburnt. Yes, that is exactly what I said - I have been in way more hot sun than this , this is ridiculous, I can’t get sunburnt.
Reality check - ten years in Canada have made my body different than it used to be, its strange though that I find it hard to accept the changes, it feels as though I am losing a part of me. Well, I can’t do those things that I used to be able to do. Last time I went to India I caught dengue fever - that was another huge blow. I used to think that I was immune to mosquito bites and diarreah and …. no, those days are gone and alas, I must adapt and learn to accept them.
This makes me think of a spiritual principle - living a life that is hidden in Christ. Paul says ‘It is no longer I that live but Christ lives in me’ - when living in Christ becomes our lifestyle then we can no longer do the things that we used to, we are also no longer immune to issues that we used to be unaffected by. Living a life that is hidden in Christ must transform us, if it doesn’t then something isn’t right - maybe we are faking it.
For the moment, I am nursing my sunburn - I tell you it hurts. Hope you had great holidays as well and here’s hoping you do not get sunburnt.