I notice the stage is in a different location than at the 2001 Opening. Then it was off to the left side
of the parking lot as you face the Centre. Now the stage is front and center.

The location of the tour bus at right is also interesting. At the 2001 Opening, there was nothing
but big boulders and trees on that hillside. I remember it distinctly, for as I sat there overlooking
the parking lot in a yellow raincoat that day, I penned the following:

R1N20
This [picture below] is the Centre on Opening morning, before the crowd began to grow. It was actually darker
due to the weather, but I brightened the negative scan in my image editor for clarity. You can see the lights
still on at the walls of the Centre.

I’d spent nearly an hour in the early morning, sitting alone on some big rock formations among the pines
to the right of this picture, uphill from the Centre, with a great view, as the place came to life that day.

Initially it was very quiet. The cool, moist, night air of summer in the north woods was interrupted only
occasionally by the voices of the few workers outside the site. As I slowly shed the shackles of normal
human defenses and became slowly attuned, I began to sense other things happening, sort of
in layers of awareness and existence. I wrote a lot about that. But what I’m writing now is
from memory alone.

I noticed the gentle, comforting mist. Birds I’d never noticed before, were singing, chirping and
communicating gently in the background; as if part of a symphony so natural, it just quietly and beautifully
existed. No matter whether you noticed it or not.

And I sensed a presence there, the specific kind I do not know. I thought about the feeling that had caused
people to come there today. Was it in the air around us somehow? I felt a connection between
that feeling, and the feeling that had gone into Shania’s songs, which in turn led to the Centre project
and drew us there to celebrate, share, and grow.

I thought about the explorers, trappers, miners, foresters, service people and families who had
toughed it out and built this community, so far from the comforts of the rest of civilization. What hopes,
pains sacrifice and success had led to this time?

I imagined being the eyes, senses and other awareness for the peoples who inhabited this land
before the white man came. What had they witnessed from the top of this hill through the ages?
What would they think about what was happening now? Somehow, I felt they would be interested
and pleased that one [Shania] so aware and respectful of them would cause a monument to rise on this spot.

And I wondered how this all tied in with the larger scheme of things, to other continents, planets,
galaxies and into the continuum of time.

Some of the Centre staff had been working all night with no sleep in last minute preparations to meet
the deadline for the Opening. Many had only a few hours sleep before they began to trickle back in.
Slowly, visitors and guests also began to appear. Not as many as I expected. But many Timmins residents,
like Joanne, a member here, explained they had to work that day, to provide the various services for Canada Day
weekend, and for the extra people from out of town.

I watched as Will Saari and other leaders moved about, communicating and coordinating activities.
Workers approached them recurrently to give or obtain information. Will spent extra time explaining
diplomaticaly to a pickup driver, why no private vehicles were allowed in the parking lot that day.
I spoke with him and a few of the other leaders during the lulls. He’d been up late for the Gala
the night before, then spent much of the night at the Centre inside trying to get ready in time.
The pace was picking up.




more of this thread about the original Opening can be seen at:

http://www.shania-twain.org/mb/show...15&pagenumber=5