Home

I’m sitting in the Schipol airport in Amsterdam as I write this blog. It is significant, as this is the final stop before going ‘home’.   Edmonton isn’t home for me yet.  I know now that Medicine Hat never was and that Fernie always will be.  For now…

Home. Some people never leave it.  For some people they feel at home wherever they are.  For my son, home is where his friends are.  For others, it’s where their family is, or where they grew up.

My heart is aching for the 3 hour drive from YYC down hwy 22.  That drive that I’ve done solo, so many times now, that takes me home.  To my small group of friends that hold my heart and make my home.  Because, for me, comfort is in that place.  Comfort that provides a safe place for me to be uncomfortable.  And I am right now.  Uncomfortable.

Pune becomes a bit of a home while we are there.  The rickshaw drivers, maids, landlords and shopkeepers, little communities that we begin to care about. The students at the institute, the friends you make or reconnect with while you’re there all become family. The Insitute itself especially feels like home.  It is familiar to the point we notice if something’s been moved, added or changed since the last trip.  I wonder what happened to the coconut walla when he’s not on the street after class.  I tip our rickshaw drivers a little extra, because I am  worried, as they are that, that the foreign students may not be enough to support them too much longer.  The building and community around it, the students and the teachers all feel like home to me.  I was surprised how sad I was to leave this time.  I’ve never been sad before, but that’s because I always knew I would be coming back.  I don’t know that this time.

So, I relished the crazy rickshaw ride with Amin to the airport last night.  Soaked in the craziness of India as I’ve come to know it, because there’s no better way to be ‘in it’ than an open air rickshaw navigating the masses on a Saturday night in Pune.  I’ll take that with me in my heart as I make my new home in Edmonton.  I’ll take it with me whenever I go back home to Fernie or Valemount.

I’m  coming home 🙂

love, Sam