journal features
movie reviews
photo of the day

one year, already!

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2011.10.31

Tomorrow will be the anniversary of my return to Toronto from Canada; at the time I had no job or home, and was alone.

How much can change in a year. Mari's now pregnant with our second child, we've got a network of friends in the city, we've long since settled into our home, and Mari's even got her permanent residence. All has gone more or less as hoped.

Many friends and family have commented on the lucky timing of our departure from Tokyo, being as it was just before the earthquake etc. I still miss the place, though. Flipping through my Tokyo street photography book is always a great reminder.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner