Heart-shaped Rock

It was a beautiful day in Regina yesterday. After a brutal blizzard that hit Western Canada on Monday evening and a short cold snap that followed, it was nice to have a sunny day and 17C temperatures. Most of the snow that fell during the blizzard melted. While the added moisture is good news for the agricultural producers of the region, it was a bit of a downer to have a blizzard pass through during the end of March.

The incredible weather offered an opportunity for my kids and I to get out of the house. We've been cooped up doing remote school work for the past four days. Regina Public Schools moved to remote schooling on March 29th due to the large outbreak of COVID-19 variants in the city and surrounding region. It was the right move but it did create a situation where I had to take some vacation days to help out the kids.

In the mid-afternoon we got out and took a walk through Wascana View Park. Although it was a bit breezy, we had a nice time and were re-invigorated by the fresh air and sunshine. Along our journey we came across a gopher that was (unfortunately) digging up the park. He was a jittery little thing - in order to take a picture we had to be very still and not get too close. A bit further up we found a mallard duck couple trying to stay warm on the ice of a pond. They had their heads tucked into their feathers. I could just imagine them thinking, "Hurry up and melt already! We want to start laying our eggs."

Yet, the most unexpected thing that we encountered on the return journey was a heart-shaped rock that my daughter noticed in a pool of water. I was trying to show the kids how to take a macro shot close up and it didn't even occur to me that the rock had the shape of a heart. I just saw it as a rock sitting in a pool of water. After my daughter pointed it out, I could see it. 

At first I thought it might have just been a case of pareidolia but that wasn't the case. It was a fitting end to a really nice walk in the great outdoors. I love my kids and the fact that we found this heart-shaped rock could not have been a better metaphor for what I was feeling right then and there.