I arrived in Canada exactly the way I prayed for it to happen - safely and smoothly, no lines to join and no luggage to wait on. I'm telling you, God answers prayers and my hearts desires. My first glimpse of the eastern coast was at night, so I only saw lights and the shape of the coastline. Even though I've never visited the east coast, just seeing the land of Canada brought tears to my eyes. I think I said out loud "Home". It's that feeling of belonging I've missed. As we were preparing to descend over Ontario, it was breathtaking to see home through different eyes. I remembered traveling to Canada with my grandmother in 1983 and she told me to look outside and see how pretty it is. We traveled at night. I remember peeking out at the vast amount of lights. Yesterday I understood the beauty that she saw. My mind was busily retrieving memories of which places I could decipher. I forgot some of them. I saw the famous Highway 401 and was delighted! There's my multiple lane highway. I was in awe of the straight and wide roads and the organization of everything. I might have taken it for granted before, now I deeply appreciate it. God bless the CN Tower and how it shines the light of the city.
When we landed the immigration officer looked at me and smiled and said "Welcome back!" I was beaming!!! I almost did a little skip in the air. It was 1 degree Celsius last night and I enjoyed it. Surprisingly I was not cold. Truthfully, I wish I had stopped in Tim Hortons for a coffee but my hands were full of bags and I could not carry it. I waited gleefully for my hotel shuttle and something hit me. There was no smell of cigarette smoke! It's one thing I am not fond of in Europe. What a gift to breathe clean air.
I have so much to be thankful for during this stay. The much larger hotel suites, a standard sized bathroom here is a dream come true as it's much larger than everywhere else I had been. Central heating. The feeling of having space around me for a change. The bed is so comfortable. Wow. I was inspired to wake up and exercise with all of this space, so I did.
This morning at breakfast, I poured my large coffee and relished all of it. Twice in fact. Something stopped me dead in my tracks today. I saw muffins being served for breakfast. I had to walk up and stare at it. I said "My gosh, I don't think I've seen one of these in such a long time! I actually forgot about it." It was such a foreign thing. I stared at the bagels and the difference in the breakfast options. I completely forgot about my team meeting happening in Portugal as I was so present and in awe of where I was. I listened with glee to the languages I am more familiar hearing like English, French and Tagalog. Everyone was happy and smiling.
As I write this, I've only been here for 12 hours. Being here feels as if I was transported back to the future and I am adjusting to the more than 2 years I've missed.
Comments