Journeying On

I feel like an update here is really overdue and I'm sorry for that.

Several times I have begun a blog post and then not published it. I ask myself what my readers out there want to know. Now that I am back in Canada, do people even think I have anything to say?

I don't know the answers to those questions, really. Instead of trying too hard to guess, I will just share some of what I've been up to and what I am thinking about these days.

I live in a beautiful house in my favourite part of Winnipeg, with a bunch of new roommates who are pretty fun. The house looks more and more lived-in all the time as these students gradually bring their stuff over from on-campus apartments. Recently a bunch of fish tanks arrived, and we are considering getting a cat. For the first time in my life, I pay attention to the recycling pick-up day and carry the box out to the curb in the morning myself.

I work at a bakery called Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company, and it's delightful. The people are fun, I get to bake (and clean a whole lot) and be paid for it, and I get to take food home at the end of the day. I like the philosophy of the bakery, which focuses on sustainability, particularly through using local and organic ingredients.

One of my favourite things about this job is that my work schedule is not the same every day. On one hand this can be annoying, since I have no steady sleep pattern, but it is also nice because I get to focus on different tasks depending on the day. When I go in at 5:00 a.m., I bake tons of stuff, prepare sandwiches, and mix recipes. If I go in at 10:30 a.m., I clean, clean, clean... and mix recipes. There is always someone fun to chat with, and I am learning how to more and more things on my own in the bakery.

The point of my returning to Winnipeg, most simply put, was to be with my loved ones. I cannot describe how good this has been for me. I am deeply thankful to be surrounded by my families, both the biological and the families I have chosen for myself. Most of all, I am happy to be home. I have come to realize that, for me, "home" is where Jonathan is.

Surely some of you wonder how the readjustment to life in Canada went. Some parts were easy, and some were less so. It was annoying to have five dollars in my pocket and still be unable to get on a bus, since drivers here can't give you change. The February winter weather, though, was astonishingly easy to get used to. It took me a month before I felt ready to look for a job, but walking into my churches immediately felt like home again.

It was tiring to have to keep answering the questions, "Why did you come back early?" and "How was your trip?" (You Radical Journeyers can all expect enough of the latter question after you return home to make you want to be sick.)

I am finally at a place where being at home in Winnipeg seems normal, and I have a daily routine that I not only like but which also makes me feel useful. I am very happy about that! Nonetheless, the echoes of my trip to Paraguay remain pervasive in my weeks. Even today, a song from the initial road trip to Chicago surprised me on the radio and brought tears to my eyes. That was such an emotional time. But then, so is this.

I am coming to realize that the radical journey I'm on is just going to continue. And that's okay.