I went for a walk tonight. I used to walk the streets often, but over the last several months I seem to have forgotten the habit.

I like to walk around the neighbourhood. I enjoy seeing other people’s lives: their houses, their families, their warmth. Not every home glows, of course, but there are enough to make a long walk worthwhile. The new parents, walking close together pushing a sleeping baby. The father out playing with his children on the front lawn while his wife is inside enjoying a few moments peace. The child out on their new rollerblades, watched over from a distance. The old couple just sitting together in the quiet, letting the world that they know so well pass by.

The unknowing content of a family bound by love.

I just walk and absorb all of this. All of the lives that resemble that which I no longer possess. If I close my eyes and breathe deep enough, I can almost believe it is what I have spent my life searching for. Not the perfect house or the expensive car or the manicured lawn. Just a never-ending embrace that feels “home”.