“The  proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside for some time in a foreign one.“ ~ William Shenstone

For nearly a year now, I have been living and teaching in Australia. I figured it would be a relatively easy transition – both English-speaking once-upon-a-time British colonies with the Queen still gracing the backside of our currencies and we both spell the same* – ish. I should have felt a connection to this place and this country, shouldn’t I have? A sense of history and home? My time here has exposed me to beautiful and not beautiful places, helpful and not helpful people, inspirational and discouraging experiences; rather than enhancing my connection and love to Australia and the Commonwealth, it has instead strengthened my love for Canada, and as it turns out, the United States as well.

The inklings of this realization** began to surface during the London Summer…