I was at a conference this weekend and the speaker, Ann Palo, spoke about ecological identity. She spent some time in New Zealand and we had to introduce ourselves like the Maori would, e.g. “my river is… my mountain is…” I thought of Vanessa Paki, who came from NZ to be our lecturer in Malta!!!

Ann Palo also talked about the place that her heart loves the most and how it is so far from her home. I can easily relate to that tension of wanting to be in (at least) 2 places at once! While figuring out why it is she loved that place so much, she realized that she loves who she is when she is there. I think of Malta sweet Malta: being a student, being able to walk everywhere, editing papers in a cafe, meeting amazing lecturers, having only a suitcase full of stuff, having beautiful friends, enjoying the sun, doing yoga before school, sharing that life with Evan. I love the person I was in Malta.

So how do I bring that person here to Vancouver? I think this requires a few changes, including seeing my friends after work instead of going home to watch TV with Evan. We haven’t had the TV on all week and instead spent time with Evan’s family, and it’s been so nice! Running in the forest was a good start as well (but now it’s covered with snow). I’m on the right way, just took some detours to figure out what it is I really want.