"How is Aliya Doing?" +Variations

"How is Aliya doing?"
"What is she doing up there??"
"She's in Ucluelet, right?"
"Wait, she's there permanently?"
"How has she been?"

To those of you who have been asked this, here is how I am really doing:

It has been a month and two days since I moved Iqaluit.

I am the best I have ever been.

My relationship with God is growing ever stronger. I love my job and my coworkers. I don't miss driving at all, because everything is within walking distance and I love walking. I'm not coming to Alberta for Christmas, and that makes me sad. But I'm judging a Christmas light competition here with some great people! I feel like I belong at the church I go to (this tiny church! That only sings hymns and has few enough people that all of them know my name). I am at peace always, but especially when I walk along the bay with its tides and ice blocks. I don't have any close friends up here (yet), but Nick gives me a ride home from work every time he works with me and we talk about our families and laugh at kids doing stupid things across the pool, and Dustin sings on deck with me when songs we know play. I went to a concert yesterday, and it was fantastic. Somehow, bands you've never heard of in tiny concerts always seem to be better.

Nearly-sunset clouds at 1:30

So I am here. I am happy here. Surely I could be happy anywhere, but today I am happy here. This is exactly where I want to be today, and, although I look forward to the future, wherever that is, I am in no rush to get there.

This is it. And it's enough.

- Aliya