Thomas Wolfe along with many other writers have said, "You can't go home again." The idea of this phrase is that once you have had your world view changed by outside forces, such as travelling to foreign and distant lands, you will never see home the same way again. You will have changed. Your eyes will be opened to new possibilities. You will have new insights on the things that you do and the reasons for doing those things. You will see that it is quite possible to do tasks in new and different ways, that cultural understandings are different from here and there. You will have changed while you were away.
Something else will have changed during the time you have been away. Home will have changed. Things have happened which have changed the country just a little bit. Some voices of influence will have died while you were away. Other voices have taken their place. Home is not quite the same as they way you left it.
I was very aware of this as I stepped off the plane in Vancouver. I know that in the nearly four years of being away from Canada, I had changed a great deal. Oh sure I am still the fun loving, life living individual that I have always been. But I have observed how Australian culture deals with life. In many ways it was not that unfamiliar to me, but in other ways it was quite different. I had adjusted my world view because of this new living environment. I had changed a bit.
Coming back into Canada it was great to be reminded of things. My accent was no longer strange. People do things in a Canadian fashion. Not that the Australian way was that much different, but the differences are there. And I got to travel along familiar roads, although what with the fact that Vancouver is a constantly growing and changing city, I saw many new buildings where once either open fields or small, older buildings once stood. This familiarity was comforting.
However, it would be wrong for me to thing that Canada is just as it was. Canada has grown just as I have grown. There will be some adjustments (aside from the adjustment to climate. Just a word to the wise, when I see my first snow fall since spring 2015, there may be loud curses which will be heard across the globe). It may take a while for the new me to adjust to the new Canada and that's ok.
Home is where the heart is said Pliny the Elder. Whether it is here or in Australia, or in Alberta, I know that somehow home can be found. All it takes is fellow travellers on the way. Blessings.
