retrospective mindshifting

I've got a little bit of extra time with work this week and the next because technically I'm supposed to be on vacation but I have some small supervising responsibilities until friday at which point I might catch a flight to the U.S and then Canada.

Of course, it's to my bloggy journal that I go when those few minutes leave me pondering.

I was thinking how emotionally wrought I was when I made the decision to leave montreal and toronto and commit myself wholeheartedly to Israel and a medical career with a whole differant slant to it. I remember leaving montreal and thinking how I would never have an apartment that beautiful again and I would likely never enjoy a city as much, but on this I was wrong. For me Tel Aviv and Israel itself trumps anything I experienced in all my years in Montreal. I still love la ville de montreal but Tel Aviv fits even better. Leaving Toronto was more difficult as my family is there and they all brought me to the airport and none of us could stop crying, but they were partially happy tears because they meant the start of something new and exciting and i was about to go somewhere that I'd always longed to be a part of.

When I left Canada I wasn't sure that I'd have a life with as many opportunities and conveniences. This is partially true, but what I left I don't even miss, with the exception of my family who I miss everyday. Ten years ago I would never have predicted that this is where I would be. I loved the university health network in Toronto and the lifestyle of Montreal and never would have thought that I could sacrifice it all and start from scratch here in Israel. But I did and now I can't imagine the opposite. I can't imagine being content back in that same University Health Network in Toronto or in the MUHC in Montreal ( the health network in montreal). I literally can't imagine living there again although each time I go back it's startling because it's so easy to slide back into that life again.

It's almost as if when I'm in Canada, my life in Israel was just a dream.

Very often over the past year I've entertained options of going back out of the country whether to the U.S. or to Africa, but something has kept my feet here so far.
My footprints are still here despite the best efforts of he who shall remain unnamed from my last relationship.

Of course regular sojourns out of the country are necessary and if I didn't go i would probably feel too claustrophobic to live here. I crave travel and have always wanted to reach out to the world in my own way. But at the end of the day, waking up in Israel fills me with value and intent.