Tuesday, April 20, 2010

thank you canada

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When the office is quiet and empty in the morning – a Tuesday morning
and I can sip coffee and peruse online before fully waking up,
having made my commute in that drowsy sunrise kind of way that comes with driving the same route over. and over. and over
twice a day for a year
I can finally reflect on my weekend and remember for a post later in the day.
as the sun is setting and the moon is rising,
i reflect.

It was a Toronto style weekend spent with family
spent in big houses with little beds as my aunt likes to remind me I wrote after our last visit
nearly a year ago

words fail, this feeling of unsettling, of home, of family and foreign places
they all mingle together in a disheveled tangle of peace and tension and sympathy and questions.

It was a lovely visit
full of markets and laughter and food and coffee
and just the right balance of walking and lounging and talking and eating -
of movement and rest

yet, when I sit here, now far enough removed from the events of the weekend to truly analyze
a theme emerges of our time together

no family is ideal, altogether happy or fully at rest with one another or themselves.
Ours is not.
Yours, probably, isn't either.

But somehow, it works.
Not perfectly, not even well, at times,
but it works.
And somehow, the fragmented ties that bind us are enough.
Enough to keep us held together,
for now at least.

*see my other Canada photos {here} at my flickr account; the "toronto" set includes photos of our trip last year too - so scroll about halfway down the set to see the pictures from this trip.

6 comments:

CitricSugar said...

Canada says you're welcome. :-)

Rona said...

i'm teary now. i don't know why.

jkleiman said...

Glad you liked your trip!
We always enjoy visits.
(Oops, haiku again)

jess said...

haha - you canadians!

dave said...

i love this one even thou it kinda hurts. reality can kinda bite sometime and as you say "it still works". lotta love thou. even thou often unexpressed.

jkleiman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
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