I still notice differences between living here and in Boston, and its 2 years now. The biggest, most obvious one is how friendly the people are. No one is in a hurry! (Except when behind the wheel...makes us Mass-holes look like good drivers!) I'm talking about common courtesy when waiting in cashier lines, taking the time to talk to the cashier, the bank teller...I was always in a hurry, rushing from A to B without enjoying the trip. I still have a huge tendency to be like that and I try to curb this sense of urgency. For what? Hurry up and wait? But the Quebecois (or Quebekkers) are more social, still chit-chatting face to face as if time itself is not something to run from. They socialize when doing the most irritating chores, like grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning. I'm behind them in line thinking WTF...what's wrong with these people?? I'd have to supress a huge urge to push them down, run them over, and get ahead of them in line when I first moved here. Almost.
This approach is evident in every day life. In how they approach life, work, play, deadlines. I don't see the manic rush to get there, whatever the there is. And this is not a function of me not working, of being retired if you will, so I'm able to observe. This is in your face, how they live fact. I've heard it from others. So I think about that...the rush most of us live our lives in. And I really want to, for the new year, try to live in the moment. Really live in it. Enjoy it. Not rush to get to the next one. This is difficult for me. My brain and make-up are such that before one thing is even half done, I'm planning or anticipating the next. At this rate, I'll be 70 before I'm ready!
The other thing is how they celebrate winter, and I'm more Quebecois in that respect than I'd realized. I love the snow, the cold of a crisp January morning, the rush of air in your lungs, the pureness of the world covered in fresh snow. I love ice skating along Point Merry looking up at Mont Orford, or skiing Orford, looking down at the Lake. And its busy. There are people out everywhere enjoying winter, people of all ages. I love the fire pit by the Lake, having a hot chocolate outside. Its beautiful! So its cold. Dress for it!! I don't long to be in a warmer climate, not in winter. April and November...yes! The dead months...but not ever leave the beauty of a white morning, the stillness and sense that there is a God, and He created this. Anyone can love the blue Carribean. It takes a special person to love the frozen north in winter, as well as the steel blue grey of the Atlantic of my beloved Maine coast. That's what I love, rugged, raw beauty of nature. It speaks to me.
I read once that an old Chinese proverb went something like man should not travel more than a half hour from his place of birth. I think the word travel was referring to live...and modern world has all but eliminated this concept. Yet here I am living not 20 km. from my place of birth. A place I hadn't visited since my childhood, living amongst relatives and people connected to my relatives, amongst people who know my family thus know me...its eerie sometimes, surreal. Because I fit here. In spite of being gone for the better part of 50 years, I fit here. It feels right. It feels like home. Weird isn't it?
Happy 2012 to one and all...
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