REFLECTIONS - Back home in Dartmouth, NS - June 24, 2017

I had the foresight to write down my thoughts a few days after I got home. Here they are, raw and mostly unedited.

Photo by Mike Sudoma

Leg 2 ended on Tuesday. It is now Saturday. I still haven't processed it all. Maybe I never will.
What I experienced, what I participated in, was much, much bigger than anything I could have imagined. Bigger than the group who made it happen, bigger than the ship.

First of all, the bonding was almost immediate. We felt like a cohesive unit by Day 2, and by Day 3 those bonds were so strong they'll never be broken. We are a juggernaut. The offshoots that will come out of this will be sprouting for years to come. We will change Canada.

The question hanging over me is: What will I do with this? I am not the same. I am stronger and more fragile, ready to accept and to make ripples. To be a disruptor, and to be wide open. During the trip I was surprised at how easily I cried. I allowed myself to feel it all - the joy, the suffering, the loss, the victories of people present and past. Physically and psychically I feel changed. My body is tired. My mind is unsettled. When I sleep my dreams are strange, and when I wake I don't know where I am. It feels like I have witnessed a traumatic incident, but I haven't. I have witnessed magic in its most potent forms: love and beauty.