journal features

back in the grey

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2020.01.13

Touched down in Toronto today. I came in alone, first by train to Union station then by taxi. It's colder than Nichinan where there are already cherry blossoms, but it's not too bad at all.

I have to:

1. Get through one more interview for the job in Tokyo.

2. Keep looking for work in Toronto at the same time.

3. Replace the SIM for my Canadian phone.

4. Get through the visa application.

5. Get through the outstanding tax issues here in Canada - made more complicated by some of my income having moved through my corporation.

6. Catch up with everybody (and resume networking).

All while wading through jetlag. It's going to be an interesting month

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