Friday, March 4, 2011

A Place to Call Home

I grew up in BC.  I lived in three different areas growing up, but they were all within the same province.  Then, when I was fourteen, my family moved to Alberta, a place I had only visited once before.   Keeping with tradition, we moved several times in Alberta, but finally settled down on our own little piece of land.
But then, I got married, and I moved back to BC.  Now, for a short time, I'm in Alberta again.
I remember so vividly what it was like to leave BC the first time.  Tears coming to my eyes as I said goodbye to the huge mountains, the green trees, the protection I felt being surrounded by hills.  I remember coming to Alberta and feeling naked and exposed, driving along the road with the huge open sky.  I felt like I could be attacked at any moment - like a huge dragon could swoop out of the sky and steal me away.  I didn't really like the Alberta landscape, the flat prairie, the grass that went on forever, the coulees that people called hills.  I didn't mind the wind though, I've always loved wind.  And I had to admit, the sunsets were pretty amazing.
But as the years went on, I found the unique prairie beauty growing on me.  After five years of living in Alberta, I was surprised to discover that I like it here.  I genuinely liked Alberta.  I still loved BC, and for those first five years, I still felt like I was going home, every time I traveled into the mountains covered with  trees of beautiful shades of green.

But that changed.  I still felt like I was going home when I returned to BC, but the difference was, when I returned to Alberta, I also felt like I was coming home.


                             

It's still that way now.  I feel like I have so many place I can call home, so many people who are almost like family to me, so many places that I love to be. 
I often wondered growing up, what it would have been like to be one of those families that never moved.  To have grown up in the same place my entire life.  But I'm so glad I didn't.  I'm so glad we moved all those times, hard as it was.  My life is so much richer for having had all those experiences.  And I have so many places I can call home.

3 comments:

  1. You make me miss Alberta even more! I surprise myself by getting homesick for the prairies some days. I miss the wide open spaces, the big skies, the coulees and the Sweetgrass Hills. And the people. It has a way of winning hearts. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is really well written:) i loved this post....

    ReplyDelete
  3. It does have a way of winning hearts, doesn't it?! I really do love going back to S. Alberta, and seeing everything. But I do think the people are still the biggest draw for me. :)

    ReplyDelete