A Part of My Journey of Life in Fort McMurray

I ran into a dear friend on the weekend, someone I had not seen in some time.

"Where have you been?', they asked. "I haven't seen you, and the blog has been pretty quiet lately..."

And so I suppose it has been quiet, although there have been posts here and there, hit and miss affairs for the most part, but my mind and heart and energy has been in other places.

When things happen in my life they seem to have a tendency to happen all at once. For the past few weeks both my personal and professional life went from the usual state of "busy" to "how can one person possibly do this stuff?!?" - and the answer is by sacrificing things like doing laundry, the dishes and writing blog posts.

But today I am back, feeling renewed and energized because while the last few weeks were challenging they were also amazing in so many ways. Life is a journey, but it is one where we don't always pick the road we will follow. Sometimes the road unrolls before us, and we just travel it, one foot after another, knowing where we are headed but uncertain as to what detours life may take us through.

The last few weeks has been a series of detours, some a bit scary and some exhilarating - but the road continues to unroll before me, and I just keep travelling it, because it is the most amazing journey.

Today I want to share with you part of that journey. I have written about it often before, long before I knew how close it would eventually be to me both personally and professionally. Today though instead of words I want to share a video that was created by my talented and dear friend and colleague Layla Underwood.

I won't deny that I choked up the first time I saw it - and when I saw it this weekend on a large screen I broke into very real tears, because this is part of my life journey that I will not only never forget but that is continuing even as I write. I share this because this is one of the reasons I have been a bit quiet recently, as I have been immersed in an experience that has changed my life and that will allow me as a storyteller to tell entirely new and exciting narratives. It is a part of my journey of life in Fort McMurray.