There are my mother’s familiar words. I heard them dozens of times while she was trying to guide me through my late teens and twenties. I lived and travelled to many places, always searching for something — usually driven by my heart. A quick list… in chronological order and each place only listed once.

  • Grand Falls Windsor, NL
  • St. John’s, NL
  • Kents Hill outside Augusta, Maine, USA
  • Halifax, NS
  • Fort McMurray, AB
  • White River, ON
  • McKellar, ON
  • Antigonish, NS
  • Gaborone, Botswana
  • Stillwater Lake, NS
  • Tatamagouche, NS
  • Victoria, BC

The placed that are bolded are the homes where the roots grew.

Antigonish, NS – I made a deliberate choice to travel, live, and study in Antigonish based on my family history there. My mother and father (who are both obsessed with books) met at the St. F.X. library. My dear friend, Stephanie, used to dress me up and send me to the library to meet the love of my life — turns out that the library wasn’t the place for me. My grandmother, Baba, also met my grandfather in Antigonish while she was studying at St. Martha’s Hospital. I made connections with my mother’s family, my great Aunts, Ann, Mary, and Jean as well as Leo Boots and Kay and other members of the community (Florance MacDonald and her brother). It was here that I met my deepest, bestest friend, Stephanie Nosco (formerly Babcock, I make this note because I had a lot of fun calling her Babcocker over the years). This is also the place where I found Buddhism and started on my path. It wasn’t what I expected to find but the roots took hold. I also got a degree in Information Systems but that seems secondary somehow.

Halifax, NS – I was born and raised in Newfoundland but Nova Scotia feels more like home. I guess this is where my mother is from and where she feels rooted (despite living 40 years in Newfoundland!). We (my immediate) family all have roots and connections to Newfoundland but again almost everyone is calling Nova Scotia ‘home’. Halifax is also where I started to build some strong rooting at 928 Robie Street. This is the former address of my dear aunt Terry and uncle Derrick. These two have given me a pretty special gift of letting me see how they live, taking me into their home, embracing me as family, and encouraging me to be myself and explore the world. I have learned so much from T&D and continue to do so. This was my first opportunity to see family life outside of my mother’s construct. Halifax is home to my first university experience BSC Psychology at Dalhousie and many late nights downtown and exploring my independence. I lived on a lot of streets in Halifax…

  • Sheriff Hall, South Street
  • Chestnut Street
  • South Street again
  • Edward Street
  • Robie Street
  • Dublin Street
  • Elm St
  • Beech St

Victoria, BC – The furthest of places and the deepest of roots . It’s here I met my husband and life partner. We married in small local Buddhist ceremony. Almost immediately following the marriage our little baby Juno was conceived and born on April 2. Somethings are easy because they just make sense.

Pete and I are now on the fifth floor of our condo and I’m reaching out for some roots. With the ground five stories down we have managed to grow some strong physical roots. We build three large planter boxes and we are growing root vegetables; carrots, beets, plus climbing plants; pole beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers.

We are also growing hydroponically which allows us to nurture and also to see the roots growing of our tomatoes, peppers, and basil . We spend all of our time (especially since Covid-19) looking out out 6 floor to ceiling windows at our deck. The birds are always playing (or is that fighting). It sounds sweet.