home

home |hōm|
noun
the place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family
        • the family or social unit occupying such a place
        • a house or an apartment considered as a commercial property
        • a place where something flourishes, or is most typically found.

there are three places on earth that i think of when i say home, and strangely enough, i have only ever lived in one of them.

the one place that have, and am living in, is the Streetsville area of Mississauga. i am writing this post from my basement apartment near the Streetsville GO station. living here is the best of all the worlds: a short walk to work, the feeling of a little 'town' nestled in the big city, and all less than an hour away from the bigger city, downtown Toronto.

Airdrie, Alberta is home number two, and the first of the homes i have not lived in. almost ten years ago, my parents, both born and raised in the Windsor area, decided that life was too short to live so far away from Megan, their only grandchild at the time, so they packed up everything and moved it across the country to a city just north of Calgary, with my baby brother {who was 25 at the time, and no more resembles a baby than i do George Washington.} my oldest brother followed shortly after, and now, ten years later, my family, including all the nephews who have arrived since, are firmly planted in country music land.

my parents have made a beautiful home there, and at least once a year {more if i'm lucky}, i get to visit. even though i have never lived there, it is as much home as where my kitchen table resides.

the last place i call home, and the one that—if you subtract the family element—i miss the most, is Paris, France.

the first time i went to Paris, as the airplane's wheels touched down on the french runway, i started, inexplicably to cry. i knew then, without a doubt, i was home. and with every trip, as i wander the streets, letting the history and the culture seep into my every pore, more than once being mistaken for a native Parisienne {so long as i keep my mouth closed}, i have felt more and more at home. and one day, when my kitchen table finds itself in a tiny apartment in the fifth arrondissement, then i will be able to claim that i have lived in two of the three homes of my heart.

where do you call home?