Finding enough time

Over the past five years, I've always found it hard to corner away enough time to see everyone and do everything I want while back in Canada during holidays. Every day there's one more person to see and one more thing to add to my ongoing schedule of coffees, brunches, cocktails, and dinners. I feel endlessly lucky... I've found friends who continuously keep in touch and seek out an hour or two every time I'm back in Canada to hang out and catch up. And even more luckily, over the years the time apart has not driven a wedge between us... when we meet up, it seems like little time has passed, except in the case where those friends have had kids and they've jumped up 6 inches since the last visit).

I also consider myself lucky that I don't have anyone who begrudges my decisions to be away. If they did exist, they've likely fallen from my periphery. I know my parents worry, and I know my siblings and some of my friends would like a little more time, but all the people who fill my schedule back in Canada know that this overseas life has helped bring me to a point of contentment and strength that I'd lost before I decided to hop on a plane with little notice to start a new life on the other side of the Pacific.

I guess the point of me writing this is just to say thanks... thanks to those people who continue to hound me for brunch dates and beer meetings, who are understanding when I don't quite have enough time to meet up or when I have to cut a date short, who always find time to listen to my long-winded, never-brief stories, and who have kept in touch over the years and have not allowed this time and distance to prevent us from continuing on as friends. Knowing all of this is what makes this life overseas worthwhile.

I joked around with my good buddy SP today, saying I am dirt poor but I have a full passport, the love of an amazing woman, and a smile on my face... this is how I measure success these days. See you all in six months.

T