Temporary Life/Travel
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The Best Part of Our Temporary Lifestyle
This temporary lifestyle is growing on me. Living in this cabin by Lesser Slave Lake has me immersed in nature. It reminds me of visiting Grandma and Grandpa Johnson’s as a little girl before we moved to the big city. As I walk along Devonshire Beach Road, here in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, I often think back to the smells and sounds around their place on the hill behind Castlegar, B.C. Out at Grandma’s I’d take off into the woods with my sisters and cousins to explore for hours. None of us worried about where we were going, how to get back or whether we’d encounter a bear. I’d…
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What’s Your Struggle?
Right now, I am struggling to stay focused on my writing goals. It’s that time of year again, when I pack up a few of my favorite things in preparation to head north in support of The Consultant and his work. This is the fourth summer of our temporary lifestyle and, it is starting to feel like my new normal – at last. The transition to this new way of life has not been easy. When we started this path in 2011, it seemed everything was a struggle. Looking back now, I can see why. Virtually everything in my life changed within four months. I left my secure full-time job…
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Distracted By Beauty
My cousin raised her family just outside of Sidney by the Sea, on Vancouver Island. I fly out to visit when she and her husband move into their newly built home in a coastal setting I’d die for. The stunning view from her kitchen window is of Saanich Inlet and the Olympic Mountains. The moment I see it, I wonder through my jealousy, “With that view, how do you ever get anything done around here?” She laughs at me but I suspect the truth is, a splendid view can disrupt even the most organized woman. I won’t know for sure until I live with a view of my own. One…
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What Do You Do All Day? – Part 2
Two years ago, I met a writer and poet named Louise Mathewson at a journal writing retreat where I shared my writing dream. After the retreat, I arrived home to an email from her with advice that read something like, “I keep a sticky note on my computer that says, ‘Writing is my Job.’ It helps.” Yes, it does help and I do see writing as my job now. So, as I was saying in What Do You Do All Day? – Part I, I show up every morning, hoping to find a work of art or, at least, a morsel of brilliance in my writing from the day before.…
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What Do You Do All Day? – Part 1
I am in a unique situation. The Consultant goes to work every morning, seven days a week, at 7:00 a.m. and returns home somewhere between 5:30 and 7:00 each evening. I have no formal job and find myself in unfamiliar surroundings with a full day ahead of me to use as I wish. People who know me well understand that this is no problem for me but most want to know, whether they are bold enough to ask or not, “What do you do all day?” I’m reconnecting the dots from my days before kids to my days after. I’ve learned that it’s not possible to start where you left…
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The Big Trade Up
It feels like we won the lottery. After two summers in Fort McMurray, my husband, The Consultant, has started a new contract in a different town. We are in Slave Lake, Alberta. This is location number two in a series of temporary homes we’ll experience over the next few years. Compared to last season, this is a big trade up. Instead of modern condo living in a downtown centre, we get to try a country lifestyle in a charming cabin on land rich with history. The owner was raised in the house next door. Second generation on this site where his parents were homesteaders in 1930, he raises buffalo and maintains…
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The Heart of the New West
It seemed as though just about every area of Canada had experienced disaster but us. There were ice storms to the east, tornadoes and fires to the north and more fires to the west. We in Calgary, Alberta may have been feeling lucky, or even a bit smug that we live in such a blessed part of the world. Other than winter cold snaps with sub-freezing temperatures, some cool, rainy springs, and the odd hail storm we had little to complain about. We were living the charmed life. Lately, my thoughts had started to shift. Disasters seem so common now. I couldn’t help but wonder when our turn would come.…
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Why I Am Grateful to Fort McMurray
Reflecting on the year 2012, I am most happy to have completed one full summer in Fort McMurray. This is the first chapter in, what I have chosen to call, “My Temporary Lifestyle.” With The Consultant bidding on and attaining contract work, we never know for sure where we’ll wind up or for how long. Summer 2012 was in Fort McMurray, the epitome of The Temporary Lifestyle. During our six months in town, I realized we were among the multitudes of others who are living it. I joined my husband in May, hesitant and resistant to the experience, but I had a plan. I would connect to the community and…
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Around Here (Fort McMurray Edition)
Once in while we need a reminder to pause, appreciate and take stock of life. Mine came this morning, when I checked my inbox to find a new post by Cakes, Teas and Dreams. Via Ali Edwards – Capture Life. Create Art., we have been asked to respond to a journaling prompt about what’s happening in our day-to-day lives. For me, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. A new fall season is upon me and I am about to transition from Fort McMurray back to my real life in Calgary. So here’s what’s going on around here. Around here I am … glad that the summer work season is winding down…
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The Empty Nest North
I am becoming a woman I can’t see. I am an empty nester and in, what experts would call, transition. You know, that period where one changes from one state or condition to another. I know, I am transitioning from dedicated, hands-on mother to… someone I am yet to know. My son and daughter are young adults who are embarking on their own lives. My husband took a contract eight hours north of Calgary. At this stage, any wise woman would recognize this natural course of life and make plans to leave the kids behind in the house. They need her less. She needs to stay connected with her husband…
