Home Sweet Home

It feels good to back in Toronto again after our road trip! This year our road trip destination was New York where we spent a lot of quality time with our family members who live there. It was also fun to spend a few days doing sightseeing in Manhattan and enjoy the spring in New York. I will share some pictures from the trip whenever I get my computer working again. The repairman still has my computer but hopefully I will get it back soon.

I love going on trips for two different reasons. I love enjoying the people, food, weather and sights in a new place and I also love that every trip gives me a new appreciation for home. It was fun to spend a week in New York but after seven days I was starting to long for the suburbs of Toronto again. I love that our neighborhood has a lot of green space and.......space, in general. I like big cities but after a while I always start to long for nature, peace&quiet and more space. I also think it's quite funny how annoyed we can get with our own hometowns until we see something different that helps us appreciate what we have. I find Torontonians to be very self-centred in traffic, until I go to New York. Every time I come home from NYC I find Torontonians to be so polite and kind, in comparison to the New Yorkers. I think it's good for everyone to get a change of scenery a couple of times a year if possible, trips and vacations give us a much needed perspective on life.

I also got very inspired from spending a lot of time with my husband's aunt who lives in NYC. She is one of those Christian women who radiates light, love and joy. She is a nurse and she treats every person she serves with the same honor and respect, no matter if her patient is a famous celebrity or a poor person. Hospitality is one of her spiritual gifts and she is using her gift to the fullest. She always invites you into her home with a big smile on her face, cooks you a meal and loves to spend time with you. She will always leave you feeling more encouraged than when you arrived.

Auntie is a social butterfly and I'm pretty much the opposite, I will never be like her, but we all have been given different gifts by God. Last time I took a Spiritual Gifts-test my top three gifts were Encouragement, Mercy and Teaching. When I see Auntie in action I get inspired to put my own gifts to use as much as she does. Auntie is 70+ but she still works as a nurse a couple of days a week, she loves people and she doesn't want to fully retire when she can continue to help others. I love how much we can learn from other people who have gone before us. Auntie is 40 years older than me and I learn so many new things from her every time I spend time with her.