Canada Moms Blog

Home is where the heart is (so why can't I stay?)

That's what they always say, right?  That home is where the heart is.  I think that's my big problem right now (and if that's my biggest problem, then life is good, I know that).  I live in Montreal.  Right now, though, I'm on a three-week vacation in Halifax.  Granted I work as a freelance writer so I'm not truly on vacation because I have to keep working anyway but it's been working out well by getting some done first thing in the morning and finishing up the rest before supper if I don't finish it all.

And here's the truth - while my literal, physical home is back in Montreal - an apartment full of furniture, toys, clothes, everything - my heart is here.  So where is my home really?

Well over a decade ago I thought that I would really like to live in Halifax.  I blame it on the movie Message In A Bottle.  I took one look at that coast and thought, "yes.  I need the ocean."  Of course the movie took place in Maine, but that would be more complicated, so I just shifted the co-ordinates north a bit and figured that Halifax would be ideal.

Fast forward a couple of years and I meet my husband - who has some family out here and grew up spending most of his summers here.  Our first vacation ten years ago was to Halifax and that sort of sealed the deal for me.  Seeing firsthand how friendly the Maritmes are made me want to be here more than ever.

Seven years ago we returned for a wedding.  The morning after our arrival, he asked me if I would ever consider moving to Halifax.  I didn't even need half a second to think about it.  I answered yes immediately.

The amazing Canadian summer that ... wasn't, really

I know that my fellow Canadians living on the West Coast are currently drowning in massive pools of their own sweat with a wild heat wave that is sweeping B.C.  And as someone who thinks "humidity" should just be re-named "death" I really don't envy those of you who are sitting limply, trying to just find enough energy to drag yourselves to the nearest beach, pool, or bathtub to cool off.

That being said, I don't particularly care for the sub-arctic freeze that is known as winter either (no, I'm not very easy to please am I?), at least in part because winter just lasts so long here.  Because of that, I put aside my trepidation over having to consider things like the Humidex and I look forward to summer for, you know, the summery things.

Things like swimming.  Playing in the park.  Swimming.  Having BBQs with friends.  Swimming.  Drinking a glass of wine outside on someone's deck or my own balcony.  Did I mention the swimming?  I hold tight to memories of those things when it's March and Montreal is getting its 42nd dumping of snow that season.