Immigrant Past

I am Canadian. Very Canadian. Fourth generation immigrant to a new place. Most of my family immigrated here to seek a better life from various parts of Europe. I can lay claim to heritage from Ireland, Scotland, England and Germany. I come from a family of immigrants, ones who were strong enough to leave all that they had known to come and make a new life in a new country. That is the past that has been created for me.

The legacy that leaves for me is one of home. It is the ability to create home wherever I go. I can leave one home and still call that place home while creating a new home in another place. I know that if I leave one place that I love, it doesn't mean I love it any less for having to leave it.

I have met many people in the past few years who have immigrated to Canada from various countries. They all have various reasons for leaving the countries they were born in. The only reason that has never occurred is that they don't love the country they left. They have left to seek a better life, or even just a different life for themselves and their children. They return to visit their homes when it is safe to do so, but for some of them, it will never be. They will never be able to return to the place they hold in their hearts. That is the past they will pass on as their legacy.

I have been called a homemaker more than once in the past and I can agree with that right now. I do make home and I love home. That doesn't mean I will only stay in one home though. I will travel in my life and create new places that I don't want to leave. I will love homes and I will have to leave some of them. I hope that I will be as strong as my family in that respect. I won't have to leave without the possibility of returning. I won't have to cross the ocean on a steamer, or take the railroad across the prairies. I won't have to clear land and live on it in order to keep it, but I will struggle with the ability to make home. Having the ability to move doesn't mean that your heart doesn't break when you leave places and it will never mean that you don't miss them. It simply means that you are open to the world of possibilities that exist when you are willing to move.