To all the people who summit 'Love the Ways' to The Coast, you are fabulous! I love the active community who comment on the online posts and enjoy reading the responses every week. It's somewhat of a shame that there is more activity on the Bitch thread than the Love thread but hey, it's certainly more entertaining. —Weekly Reader

I sat in my cozy Halifax home, and read loves about missing the city I had ceased to appreciate. Now that I've spent some long months on the other coast I'm here to contribute. Halifax—I'm sorry I stopped considering you and your potential every morning when I woke up, and that I thought your cafes were trying to hard or not trying hard enough. I'm sorry I cursed your rainy season and didn't just go out and buy a better rain jacket, and that I spent more time planning going away than appreciating where I was. More than anything, I can't wait to roll around in your Common, eat ice cream on stoops, recognize faces on the street, smell your harbor and find shows down alleyways. You were always more than enough for me. I'll treat you better this time. —Halionian

Thanks trees and planters for being so kind. For offering a bit of shade, a bit of grass. You muffle the street noise and soften its lines. You're a paragon of function, you're a perfect little bench. Folks sit, chat and laugh on Gottingen Street. I think there should be more. Send 'em up and down the street. Christ, they'd make Quinpool way better too. We should stick em' up there. Do it. Thanks. —Bill W

To the stranger who admired my tattoo and then paid for my fare on the airport bus so I didn't miss my flight: Thank you for being such a positive final memory of a city that has been so kind over the years. Nowhere else like you Halifax! —Brisbane Boy

After three years of living in Halifax during the summers as a university student, I had to move back home to my small town this summer because of Hali's not-so-cheap rent situation. Oh Halifax, how I miss you every day. I did not expect to miss you at all, let alone this much. I miss your busy people, your ocean, your constant reminder that I am so small and just one of these humans wandering around not knowing what I'm doing. In my hometown I am constantly reminded of sedentary life, things not changing, people not growing. Settling with the same old, same old. Being in relationships that kill them slowly. Where is the uncertainty, the excitement, the waves of new ideas and perspectives? The wanderlust? The WANT TO BE SOMETHING MORE? I feel as though I am drowning in the small-town attitude. Halifax, I will be back in September. I cannot rush this beautiful summer (or valuable time spent with my loving family). However, I now realize you give me something that my small town will never be able to...an opportunity to be myself, wide-open and whole-heartedly. Thank you. See you soon, my dear Halifax. —SmallTownGirl

I really do love Halifax. I've been dabbling with barefoot walking to prepare for barefoot running. Today I did my longest barefoot walk and it was amazing. The sidewalks along Spring Garden Road and Robie Street are so well taken care of, it's amazing. I didn't have to dodge glass or sharp rocks. The walk was a breeze and highly enjoyable! —Barefoot Computer Geek

June 11, the corner of Quinpool and Oxford: The theatre marquee has your names on it. Waiting on my bike at the lights, I saw Markus (yellow bowtie and boutonnière), a woman in a matching yellow skirt and three men in their Canadian tuxedos (red and black checked shirts with neckties). A wedding at the Oxford? Who knows. The light was too short for me to ask. Congratulations on whatever happened! It looked like a great afternoon. —Best Wishes Biker

Thank you Halifax for moulding me into the person I am today. I moved here at such an impressionable time in my life and I have received nothing but love and acceptance. I am so grateful that I decided to move here last summer and hope that one day I can call this little city home!! —613

Dear little pride flag in the window of Charles & Agricola. I've seen you every day as I walk to work, through winter and now into summer. Thank you. I feel more welcome because you are there. —:)

Halifax, thanks for being my home for the past 9 years. You've introduced me to so many things and wonderful people. I have an amazing band that I am so sad to leave but so grateful to have had the pleasure to work with. All my friends who stuck with me through shitty times, through apartments packed to the brim with punks and kitty poops, through shitty bosses bullying us, through hear aches and joblessness; you guys are the reason I stayed so long and you are the reason I will come back. I love you all so damn much. —A manko leaving the nest