The Places We Return To
- Forest Eden Greenwell
- 31 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Do you know how long it takes to truly know a place? On average it takes 30-90 days for basic mapping and well over a year to build deep neurological pathways. In a time where every second we can have a new image, topic, person, place, or product exposed to us, thinking about how long it can take to truly know the world around us is a confronting idea.
More, more, MORE! the world pushes on us all the time. Travel to every corner, taste every flavour, buy every thing. It feels as though the way we live is designed to be fleeting, always chasing something, never remembering fully where we have been or what we have experienced. Sometimes the answer to this can be slowing down, but often given the restrictions of time it is more about coming back.
In this way, to return to something feels akin to protest. We don’t all have the European vacation time so perhaps taking a few months out of the year to be somewhere new isn’t in the cards for us; maybe instead of trying to touch upon everything we can learn what it means to slow down, take our time, and not rush the “getting to know you phase”.
It feels important to say that not everywhere we find ourselves is somewhere we need to know deeply. Yet I do believe that our experiences are mirrors for us and in a place as powerful as Tofino I’m curious about what it would mean to take our time. Not just to match the pace of this place, but equally to see what there is within ourselves to know and return to, too.
How many times must one visit Tofino?
It’s been over 12 years since my first visit to Tofino. I drove down with my grandfather and felt like an outsider.
I visited again to see a childhood friend, and then again to visit another childhood friend, and then again and again and again. I can no longer count how many times I have passed through.
I have partied, relaxed, felt connected and estranged; been sick and in good health, gone to write a review for a local spot only to realize I had already written the exact same review over 5 years earlier.
Consistently, no matter the circumstances, the red thread of Tofino has been a place that has made me confront what I really want. Who I am at my core, who I want to be, and who I have let go of being.
I leave feeling I have had my fill and return hungry for another reflection. To hold myself up to who I have been, and to observe the spaces that have opened or closed for me in accordance to this. As I change, Tofino equally shifts what it is showing me.
Why is it never enough?
This feels like asking why we get hungry again, why we get rid of an old shirt that no longer suits us just to buy another that will eventually leave too.
The best way I can think of it is that travelling can be like dating. The idea of “everywhere I go, there I am” comes to mind here but it’s more like, the more places I go the more I can see what is always here within me and what is here under certain circumstances. The more people we date, the more we learn what we like and need, what our own patterns are and what patterns can only appear in tandem with another. Sometimes we outgrow relationships - just like we do places.
But some places are like notches on the door that tell us how much we’ve grown with no limitations to dimensions. This is what Tofino is. Whether you return for a specific event like the Tofino Saltwater Classic, or you have a tradition of going to see a movie in every town you visit, I believe we all have some kind of inner barometer for how our experiences hold up to one another.
Having now been to Tofino over 3 different decades of my life I’ve learned it’s not that it’s never enough - it’s that I’m never done becoming.
The places we return to become a marker in time. A check-point in the spiral. A way to gauge growth and change that may otherwise feel too close to us to see properly. It gives us perspective, space, and the truth of what still remains the same.
Returning to Tofino is about more than just coming back to one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s about returning to ourselves, counting the rings in our tree and taking the time to notice the directions our growth has taken us.
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