Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Change and Consistency

When there's snow on the ground, and some on the roof, it's good to remember.
This is Fort Assiniboine, AB. It's where I'm from and where I don't get back to nearly enough.
It's grown a bit since I went to school there, but not so much as to be unrecognizable.
That's good.
Change is inevitable, but it's good to mix it with a bit of consistency. If I stand on this hill just right it looks the way it did every school morning from 1964 to 1976.
Do you have a place to return to?
Where do you go to remember?

14 comments:

David Cranmer said...

There is a small village in New York that I go to. It's not the same because my father is gone but his spirit is still there and so I return.

the Bag Lady said...

I drive past the house I was raised in once a week. The new owners have done a very nice job of renovating it (and have made it look like every other house on the block, so if that was their aim, they were successful), but it is still recognizable as the house I knew. No amount of renovation can take my memories away.

Leah J. Utas said...

David, the spirit remains. It's good to have a place to go to.

Bag Lady, that's right. It'll always be as you knew it.

Dawn said...

hmmmm...I have good- and then not so good- places which I return to. The good places are full of memories which are treasured. The not so good places I visit....just to see how far it is I have come. (Thank God for THOSE changes;)

Leah J. Utas said...

That's a good approach, Dawn. It's good to have yardsticks.

Ron Scheer said...

I rarely get there, but there's a road near the house where I was born that has a real gravitational pull. It's been designated "minimum maintenance," so it's impassable some months of some years.

I like to stop there under a stand of cottonwoods and listen to the wind in the trees and the meadowlarks singing in the fields. No memories, just a place of stillness to feel at peace for a while.

Leah J. Utas said...

Ron, that sounds like a magnificent spot to stop at.

Reb said...

Lately I can't go physically, but I do have photos and memories. And google earth to show me the awful things they did to our home! Sis is right, they made it look like every other house on the block, but they did some things that just make me shudder!

Leah J. Utas said...

Reb, it may be a blessing you can't go there physically. Change has it's downside.

messymimi said...

All the places I grew up got "Katrina'd", but it is nice to look back and remember.

Redbush said...

The farm I grew up on now has no buildings, and absolutely nothing on it but a few trees. It looks depressing, so I don't drive by there too often. The school was submitted into the local museum, so, I get to visit it once in a while. It brings back memories.

Leah J. Utas said...

Redbush, sad about the loss of buildings on the farm. Cool about the school, though.

Hilary said...

Change and consistency.. a good mix, for sure.

My place is back in Montreal and I haven't been there .. in too long.

Leah J. Utas said...

Sorry you haven't made it back in a while, Hilary.