My mother and I are spending a week in Manitoba, it’s where she grew up and this pool is located in her hometown of Altona, where we lived for a year. It’s also the place where we came for many weekends and holidays when we lived only 200 miles away. This is the pool where I FAILED my Red Cross Beginner’s Badge test! I was 8 years old and devastated.

Yesterday, I left my mother and uncle to catch up and went out to explore the town, to see if I could find anything familiar. I remembered where my grandmother’s house was and was following the route that we would have taken to the pool everyday during the summer, only to find the road blocked by a chain link fence! I did however find the pool… it’s much fancier than it was when we lived here. It’s an ‘Aquatic Centre’ now and at first I wasn’t sure if it was even the same building, but then I spotted the canteen and got an instant memory of standing there buying freezies. This evening, in reminiscing with my uncle, I was reminded that this is also the pool that a number of us adults, who should surely have known better, climbed the chain link fence at 6 am one morning during a big family reunion week, after a night of ‘beverages.’

I traced the route that I took to school, only to find the school gone. Not surprising, since it was an old stone structure when I attended. I was happy to confirm with my uncle that the business that now occupies that space was indeed where the school was. I could remember where my best friend lived, even though the house looks very different and the yard that we played many a game of ‘scrub’ has been replaced by a giant garage.

Geographic memory is an interesting thing. Since I grew up as an ‘Air Force Brat’ and all of those bases have closed, I have no hometown, no place to stir a memory, no particular smell that means home. So many forgotten things have resurfaced this past two days. This town, these streets, this flat prairie, left a lasting imprint on me. It’s the place I learned to ride a bike, it’s the place that for the first time, I had extended family around; grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and felt a part of wider circle. It’s the place where I great freedom and yet felt an outsider to those who had lived their entire lives here. These last two days, it’s been a joy to revisit my younger self and to experience such gracious hospitality from the extended family that continues to call this place home.

And that’s my window on God’s world.