Coming Home: What Corner Brook Still Teaches Me About Living Well
Sometimes the most restorative trip isn’t the farthest one — it’s the one that takes you home.
Home is a curious thing.
Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s a person. Sometimes it’s just the feeling that settles over you the moment the wheels touch down and you know — you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.
I felt all three this week.
Flying in, I watched the west coast of Newfoundland unfold below me: silver rivers threading through ancient hills, ponds so wide that come-from-aways would swear they were lakes. We landed in Deer Lake — the place where, for so many years, Mom and Dad would have been waiting.
They can’t greet us in person anymore. But I felt them anyway. In the mountains. In the breeze. In the road that still knows the way home.
Down through the Humber Valley, we passed the Man in the Mountain, the way generations before us have. Then the Bay of Islands opened up, glowing in the afternoon light, and I remembered — again — why nowhere else has ever come close.
At the end of the road, my brother and sister-in-law opened their door and welcomed us in.
This is what wellness actually looks like to me.
Not a spa day. Not a retreat itinerary. It’s the strength of the people who raised you. The wildness of the land that shaped you. The humour, the resilience, the quiet understanding that a life well-lived isn’t measured by what you earn — it’s measured by what you love.
The air is different here. The rhythm is different here. My shoulders drop. I breathe deeper.
I talk to clients all the time about reclaiming a sense of self through travel — about wellness as something you return to, not something you buy.
Corner Brook is where I first understood that, long before I had the language for it. Sometimes the most restorative trip you can take isn’t the farthest one. It’s the one that takes you home.
Wherever home is for you — I hope you get back there soon.
❤️ Sheila
Where’s the place that makes your shoulders drop the moment you arrive? I’d love to hear about it. https://youtube.com/shorts/X_dGnLPN8as?si=F5kn0504c5anTb9