“Thinkers prepare the revolution and bandits carry it out.”

I said adios to my once-unloved city, Toronto yesterday. It was so great to spend 2 weeks between Toronto, Waterloo and Ottawa, catching up with friends, meeting other nerds in the medtech space, eating the best roti outside of India (Gandhi on Queen, obviously). I lived in TO for 6 years before moving to Belgium. At the time I never would have called the city home or even said I really liked living there. I always thought I was on my way to somewhere else (I suppose I was), and never really emotionally invested in the place. Maybe a mistake in hindsight.

Being back this time I fell in love with Toronto in a whole new way. Maybe it’s me getting older – something that I haven’t written about much publicly, but which has been on my mind throughout the past year. If I’m honest there’s probably something in me that’s starting to speak up and say that staying in one place for a bit of time isn’t such a bad thing. And seeing people who tell me they’d like to see me more, who make me feel part of a community even though I don’t deserve it as I’ve been away so long. People who have built lives and families and stories together… who graciously include me despite my wandering ways. Plus, Toronto is a cool city on it’s own. Sticking around King/Queen West for most of the time was fun – such a funky area. Further gentrification of the west end caught me off guard and while I harbour sentiment for the former grunge of the place, I must admit it’s got a good mix of people and the shake up of new restaurants, shops, traffic, is fun to look at.

The AFest group was in town for Camp Reset. Such an unexpected surprise to have the old gang in one place again. For the weekend I headed to Blues Fest with old friends Derek and Sydney in Ottawa. Duran Duran played Saturday night – a concert I wasn’t particularly excited about, but Simon won me over pretty quick with No-No-Notorious and a rad lightshow.

Ordinary World. Ish.
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Back in the Big Smoke I spent time with Bri & Steve and their little guy, Austin. The last time I saw him he was only 1 month old, and now he’s a little human of 14 months. Like I said in my last post, it really hits home that time is passing by seeing other people’s life changes.

From chilling at 1 mo. (aka: sleeping)…
…to mastering “chillin’ like a villain”
…to walking…
…to being the centre of the social universe

So, does this mean I’m coming back or building a h-h-home in Toronto? No, probably not. Sorry. For the next while I’ve got other plans, but I’ve learned it’s better to never cancel anything out. The universe seems to have many ways of surprising me. At the moment I’m planning to stay in Colombia for the coming weeks – back to Busintana to plant some trees and meditate. Before going back to work soon I need to organise all the lessons I’ve learned from the adventures I’ve had over the last year. That should be an interesting post… (for me, anyways).

Thanks all my amigos in Tdot. Mucho amore.