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Janet Breen's avatar

What stands out to me here is that you aren’t rural, and you haven’t grasped the importance of family. Not many generations before me, 80% of North Americans lived on family farms. You talk of wanting to put down roots-in Vancouver. You compare it to Toronto, London, Dublin. GET OUT OF TOWN, woman! And if you want a tribe: make your own. That’s what all tribes start out as: a big family. And finally: get involved helping others. Volunteer. Make it your living. Those become your ‘tribe’ too. The

I grew up in Peterborough, the daughter of a man born in a 2- room shanty on the Saskatchewan prairie, brother to 10, a mother who was born in a farmhouse on the edge of the bush in Alice Township near Pembroke, sister to 5. I had aunts and uncles whose farms I regularly stayed at. I share the world with a legion of cousins; could likely freeload my way around this globe. My Christmas cards encircle my dining room-but one wall is from charities my husband and I donate to. My current residence is a hobby farm on a backroad in NB, where it’s quiet enough to hear the wind sigh through the raven’s wings overhead. My other residence is a cottage on the Madawaska River south of Eganville, which will become our sole Canadian home within a year or 2: the kids and grandkids are within 2 hours of it. Cities are man-made. Get out of that puny self-important jangle and clash and marvel at the immensity of the REAL world, and the amazing handiwork of our Creator.

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Shelley Bourdon's avatar

I have found that, if I have a bit of forest to call my own, that gives me a sense of belonging. I’ve been a member of human communities in the past (environmental activist groups, Quaker groups, interfaith contemplative-prayer groups, and friendly neighborhoods), but even though I found my connection to these past groups to be pleasant, they never gave me a sense of belonging in the way that a “belonging to a forest” does. Maybe in my next life I will be a tree. : )

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