Building bridges

Story: Sharon Harrison
Thunder meets new donkey friend Wilburt

Chapter five of DeRAIL’s Walking with Thunder series was celebrated Sunday, along with daylight saving time, at a section of the Millennium Trail off Smokes Point Road, south of Carrying Place. This month’s walk included a bridge and water and, of course, ice, as well as a surprise second donkey encounter, together with a couple of special guests, with a glimpse of the melting ice of the open waters of Wellers Bay to set the scene. While the day felt closer to winter than spring as a raw north-easterly blew hard, especially on the more exposed portions of the trail, the sun shone down on a donkey named Thunder and his human companion, Conrad Beaubien, and the small group who joined the walk.

The series of monthly meditative walks in nature, always along a different section of the Millennium Trail, and always in the western portion of Prince Edward County, was the idea of artist, storyteller and playwright Conrad Beaubien. Described as a different kind of public art project, the walks take place in the quieter months of the year along various sections of the Millennium Trail in a sometimes forgotten area of the County. Many years in the making, Beaubien’s dream was realized last October as a result of the pandemic year. It was an acknowledgement of the need to gather safely in small groups (when safe to do so), as a way to connect with each other during a pandemic, something Beaubien feels strongly about in a time of forced social isolation amid mental health concerns.

While the original idea came from Beaubien, the Walking with Thunder series of walks could not have happened without the backing of non-profit independent arts producer DeRAIL, a Toronto-based platform for contemporary art and architecture. Under the guidance of landscape architect Victoria Taylor, she made the project, and the walks, come to life. DeRAIL is an alternative platform for dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary, geographical and ideological boundaries bringing artists and audiences together, where they ask people to think about landscapes and public spaces differently.

“Thinking of this time of year and spring and the thawing out from water, and the thawing out from land, also thawing out of our bodies, with things like getting more movement and getting outside in the warmer weather, so we want to acknowledge this time of year,” says Taylor. Inspired by the Millennium Trail, DeRAIL would like people to look at the trail, not just as a mobility corridor and a wildlife corridor, but to also think about what else it can be. “What can happen in a moment when we stop and pause and think about life?” she asks.

As the walks have evolved, so has Beaubien’s vision and understanding as he fulfills the meaning of connectivity at this especially difficult time of not being able to spend time in the company of others. He also acknowledges and emphasises the importance of walking and being outside in nature, and the associated mental health aspects, as well as his own personal struggle with depression, something he has spoken more openly about recently in order to not only help himself, but to help others who may also be struggling. For Beaubien, this has become a journey of reveals, an exercise in healing, and a series of special encounters, but it’s also about paying attention to the nuances of all living things: animals, nature, each other, and how they interact and connect to the bigger picture.

“In all these walks, I have somehow gravitated to bridges and I began to realize the significance of bridges now in the era that we are living in because in many ways, we cross over from one life into another,” explains Beaubien. “It’s definitely a passage and we are there right now with all the natural world and all the messages out there.” He says when he looks at the architecture of the bridge, it involves all the various themes across beams and posts. “That is very symbolic of community, it’s about us: we can do that, we can hold up a bridge, we can make it happen.”

He also speaks to the grounding that animals provide where he establishes and reinforces a connection to animals as it relates to mental health, and especially to his good friend, 14-yearold rescue donkey Thunder who calls Noble Beast Farms in Bloomfield home. “This guy is about listening and hearing, that’s what I am learning about him,” says Beaubien. “Personally, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last few months,” he says. “Being an artist, I am familiar with working alone, but not being so isolated where you can’t get out or find mechanisms, so I get to the farm as often as I can. The power is animals take us away, they just get us out of ourselves, and they are a medium to the earth and are very grounding.”

Chapter five of Walking with Thunder ‘Ice Out on Wellers Bay’ invited two special guests to join the walk. Lorraine Schmidt of Thyme Again Gardens, located on Smokes Point Road, spoke about farming, and Wellington writer Jane Macdonald read three short poems. Schmidt has run Thyme Again Gardens with partner Lori Aselstine for 25 years and spoke about the many changes that have happened on the farm, but also about achieving diversity. “It is all about change and change is so important to us and we can go along with that and accept the change too.” Schmidt also speaks about yield. “A yield is not just what you eat or what we take off the farm; a yield is so much more: enjoyment is the yield too.” She speaks to the connections with the animals, but also biodynamics and how they do many of their jobs according to the moon. “The tides react to the moon; everything else in nature does the same thing: the speed of growth, the speed of germination, the way the animals react.”

To close out the walk, a memorable moment came to pass when Thunder had the opportunity, through a wire fence, to meet Thyme Again Gardens’ resident rescue donkey, Wilburt. Uncertain whether the meeting would be an amicable donkey exchange or something else entirely, the donkey confrontation was immediately and resoundingly acknowledged as an affirmative and welcome meeting of two equine creatures. The loud braying coming from Wilburt, just a hint at the pleasure it was to meet another equine friend, where noses touched and an instant bond was made. “We had no idea how this was going to work, so you were all witness to the experiment,” laughs Beaubien.

When DeRAIL’s Walking with Thunder series of walks wraps-up this spring, Beaubien anticipates the continuance of the walks with Thunder independently through the summer and fall. A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched to help support the project, details of which can be found at walkingwiththunder.com, where the Walking with Thunder journey is also documented. Information on the community art projects undertaken by DeRAIL can be found at derailart.com. The unfolding Walking with Thunder adventures captured by Conrad Beaubien and Sharon Harrison can also be found in the Times and at wellingtontimes.ca.