{"id":209,"date":"2009-10-30T05:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2009-10-30T05:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-30T12:22:00","slug":"toronto-the-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"Toronto the Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is my last day in Toronto. I’m heading an hour east to spend a couple of days in Port Hope, where I lived from 2001 to 2004. My mother’s family is there and a few good friends. I’m looking forward to visiting another<\/span> ex-home.<\/p>\n

I live in a small town and when I come to the Big City (this could be anywhere, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto) I like to take advantage of all it has to offer. I have done this in spades this past week. I’m officially overstimulated.<\/p>\n

It’s been a week of listening to endless sirens wailing. I heard a terrible story about a young man who was beaten and then run over and killed. I’ve listened to lots of fearful talk about H1N1 and seen people wearing surgical masks for protection. I saw a someone lying in a sleeping bag on a busy corner and I watched a man having an animated conversation with an imaginary person. His jeans were filthy and did not fit him and his hair was matted and wild.<\/p>\n

I went to the theatre, twice. I saw a couple of brilliant films that made me weep. I took photographs of the sun glinting off the new Crystal at the ROM and the RBC building downtown. I ate vegan in Kensington Market, Thai at a home in the Annex and Japanese at College and Yonge. I connected with friends and family and I people-watched on subways, buses and streetcars.<\/p>\n

This is an amazing city. There is so much going on all the time. It is constantly buzzing with human energy. I’ve had to take a few naps.<\/p>\n

I met a woman yesterday who is really struggling in her life right now. She was full of pain. I am about to go and visit my friend who has breast cancer. My friends’ daughter-in-law and grandson both have swine flu.<\/p>\n

There are 2.48 million stories taking place simultaneously right here in the city. Another 3 million stories in the GTA. There are 25,000 people in Whitehorse, where I live. The contrast is stunning.<\/p>\n

This past week has been more than just a trip I took to go to a wedding and do some business. It has brought me a deeper appreciation of all that I have and all that I am. I’m so alive today. I have perfect health. I am living a life of adventure and freedom. The words “thank-you” just don’t cut it. But thank-you.<\/p>\n

Inspiring Message of the Day: Travel can awaken us to ourselves and to the lives of others. Take a trip and see life anew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is my last day in Toronto. I’m heading an hour east to spend a couple of days in Port Hope, where I lived from 2001 to 2004. My mother’s family is there and a few good friends. I’m looking forward to visiting another ex-home. I live in a small town and when I come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-motivation","category-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}