A place is just a place, until it becomes something more.
It remains only a place until you find meaning there.
Meaning is a peculiar brew of knowledge and feelings. Isn't that the same basic recipe that defines every single one of us? Without that combination of knowledge and emotion, a person is not really a person, and a place is just a speck in the universe.
The stronger the emotions and the deeper the knowledge that bind us to a place, the more meaning we attach to it.
When the tug of emotion is strong, and the place is familiar, our bonds grow, with the most important places eventually looming large, punctuating the landscape of our feelings like so many villages, towns, and cities.
Ultimately, a place becomes home.
It's a simple four-letter word. Yet it means so much.
Leaving home is one of the most important transitions we make.
Leaving our parents' home, finding a home of our own, leaving our own home behind, and eventually finding another. None of this is easy, and it takes time.
It hasn't taken that long, all things considered.
Toronto is beginning to feel like home.
