New Adventures

It’s been a quick and busy summer and I’ve had many things on my mind that I have wanted to write about. But today I have chosen to just make note of the new change in my life. I am currently on route out of Toronto. The city I have loved for the past 4 and half years. It’s going to be a long week, with lots of driving. So while I take time to just rest on the road I thought I would use my week to reflect on my life since returning from India.

So why have a just up’d my life and chosen to move? Since I was young I knew I wanted to live away from England. I had a thirst to be somewhere beautiful. I knew I wanted to go against the norm of finishing school, getting a job and buying a house before starting a family.  As I get older I wonder if this was a bad idea, I’m 29 with nothing material that I really posses of any worth, but in honesty that doesn’t bother me yet. I am a career person and know should I continue to work as I do I will be able to bring those things into my life one day. When I was 15 my dad and step-mom took me on a trip through Australia and New Zealand, and although they saw me as a teenager not appreciating the beauty, they were wrong. Don’t believe that the youth is wasted on the young. I think this trip stimulated my thirst to travel. Since that trip I knew I wanted to go back and see more. I knew that new experiences in new cultures help you learn and develop. Since then I’ve travelled and worked abroad. I’ve been sensible with my travels with a good budget and ensured I have met locals and respected their culture.  I chose Canada to move to for only a short term, we planned for a year or two. Here we are with permanent residency and starting in another province and city, Calgary.      Since moving to Canada, I have travelled East and West, and had many experiences; backcountry camping, kayaking with whales and staying in the ice hotel are to name a few. I have crossed many paths with some amazing people and formed close friendships with a particular few.  I’ve been overwhelmed this past week with the realization that I am moving so far away from these people. Again I go to no friends, a new role and a new environment.

  For while we have been thinking of moving west in Canada. As much as we love Ontario we are drawn to be closer to the Rockies.  It was always the image of Canada we had planned to move to, before we realized how every part of this country is so different. We visited Banff a few years ago, and it was a place we really connected as we explored. We are not big skiers so took our time just taking in the sights, admiring the beauty, going for walks and gave a go to cross country skiing. We fell in love with the crystal clear waters, the awesome back drops, the wildlife and the fresh air. It was an important part of our life as we realized how much of a similar life we did want such as to have opportunities to be outdoors.  People see me as a city girl, and yes I like civilization and making friends, with a good dancing night out. But give me a mountain to climb, and a moment of silence at the top to take a deep breath and appreciate the natural beauty of our world, I would take that any day.  I’m not an adrenaline seeker, but I never want to take our world for granted. I never want to take my life for granted. I value how lucky I am to be even given these opportunities, even if it involves hard work to get them.

  When residency came we talked of changing province, but my field is so rare it would mean setting up a business on my own. My partner has been unhappy for a while in his job for a long time now, and I was feeling down also as he has huge amount of potential and it was killing me that his job opportunities have been limited over the past few years as he literally has up and rooted everywhere to follow my career and he has found whatever he could. As soon as residency came I knew we had to invest in sending him to school to do what he wanted. Being together nine years he has only ever kept going back to the idea of being a paramedic. So we looked into it in Toronto, but we got nervous as it was expensive, so we started to forget about our dreams of being out west. For a while we planned, talked about it with others, had a deadline to get there, but it just fizzled out. I knew to send him to school. I have an organization offering me stable work and benefits which is important, plus I have my other yoga teaching projects taking off so it made sense to stay. For a while I started to cling to disappointment we would have to wait to get out there, but he was my priority.

  When I was India I was doing a lot of reflecting, letting go of attachment and literally have an amazing time, that it was a while that it never crossed my mind. I was proud of myself as I checked my work emails only twice. The second time with news there was potential to move my job role to Calgary. It was fate, things comes to those when ready. I don’t know if this sounds silly but I now believe that things happen when they should. Do I believe our paths are already planned, I’m not sure, but how can something fall into place like that, when I literally stopped the worry and lusting over it.

  In Calgary we can afford to send my partner to school as its a province rich of work opportunities for him. and I get to still do something I love while he builds up his own career. We’ll soon be living in a city driving distance of the mountains, and it’s like I can feel the crisp , fresh air already.

 Goodbye Toronto and those I care for and know, I miss you and thank you for making my last few years AMAZING, but let the new adventure begin!