Zehn Jahre

There's not much more to say that I haven't said here before about this anniversary. Ten years ago tonight I embarked on a journey that would change my life forever. It was the one year that ultimately brought me to where I am today. For years I was planning an epic return to mark the ten-year anniversary of my year-long exchange in Germany. But sadly, I was unable to make it back to my adopted homeland because of an exciting new opportunity elsewhere in Canada. Because the two are so closely related, I'm not as disappointed as I thought I'd be about not being able to visit my dear friends and the families I stayed with on the northern lowlands. It was there that I decided I wanted to be a journalist, and it's here that I'm fulfilling part of those early dreams. And when I look out on this new set of plains that comprises my newest adopted home, I feel both homesick for that far away land in a time long gone, and comfort in the familiarity of vast fields and wide open skies. Distinct characteristics of a unique land that I fell in love with a decade ago.

So I'll end this with my favourite German poem. I was barely able to understand the language when I first read it, but I understood it enough that it shook me to the core. It's about being a foreigner in a strange land, and experiencing that stunning revelation of sudden belonging.

Schatten Rosen Schatten
Unter einem fremden Himmel
Schatten Rosen 
Schatten 
auf einer fremden Erde 
zwischen Rosen und Schatten 
in einem fremden Wasser 
mein Schatten

-Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973)

Posted by waub at July 31, 2006 10:58 PM