It took a year, but I think I am used to life up here - in a position to fully appreciate all the things that the area, and region, both offer and lack.

What you gain in natural beauty and in unspoiled hills, creeks, forests, and vistas you lose in social and cultural events and opportunities.

What you save with a relatively low cost of living (rent, groceries, etc.) you make up for with regular trips - both short and extended - for both essentials and delicacies.

The ease with which one can find solitude has another side too, the difficulty of finding that place where one can blend in completely, confident that somewhere in the same room, or in the same building, or even in the same village, town, or city lies another similar soul.

As I've always been fond of saying though, life is a game of trade-offs in every single last choice that we make. And thus, it is true once again. The scale never truly balances, some days tipping precariously toward one side, other days teetering and tottering back and forth from one side to another. But the scale is never concrete either, leaving one the wonderment, or the dread of another day.

As I said, trade-offs.

Giga-waabamin minawaa.