5 lessons about life

 My thanks to Aubrey and Ron for the following stories 

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts.

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease.  Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.  The doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.  I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her."  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the colour returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Now you have choices.

Once you have read the stories, remember them or tell other people where they can read them or you can forward the link to the stories to other people

Most importantly... ”Live with no regrets, Treat people the way you want to be treated, work like you don’t need the money, Love like you’ve never been hurt, and Dance like you do when nobody’s watching.”

Five lessons about the way we treat people

My thanks to Aubrey and Ron for the following stories

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The Obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway.  Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.  Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.  Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.  Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables.  Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road.  After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.  After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.  The peasant learned what many of us never understand!  Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition. 

Do overs

Life is very interesting, and one of the most interesting concepts is the concept of a do-over.  There are at least two ways of looking at this term, the first is that when you do over someone, you hurt them, the other view is that when you get a do-over it is a new attempt or opportunity to do something after a previous attempt has been unsuccessful or unsatisfactory.  The good news, of course, is that you get as many "do-overs" as you like. The number of do-overs we have is only limited by our self-image and our courage. Of course, many of us never know we are living a "do-over" until it's over. There are lots of reasons for wanting a "do-over." Most of all, people want another chance to do things they were afraid to do the first time and to say things they were afraid to say. Oddly enough, it's not their mistakes they want to rework, but their "unused" minutes. Our graveyards are filled with people who wished they would have spent their unused minutes wisely or just have spent them. The Internet is full of advice on how to use your time, "Change your life in 5 minutes",  or How to lose or gain 30 minutes a day", or "How 15 minutes a day, can change your life". All of the gurus out there are talking about your unused minutes, that we don't notice as we are passing through life. So you can get as many "do-overs" as you want, but you should know that it isn't any easier the next time, and because no two ever go exactly the same, the gifts, opportunities, and loves of one never appear the same way again. So all in all, in my opinion, it's better to live as if there are no "do-overs," so that you won't need one. But I thought I'd share this with you anyway to work in the bits about fear, mistakes, and how precious today's opportunities really and truly are.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment means that you know your own pure nature, the exact nature of the world, and the goal and purpose of life. Achieving this understanding is the greatest possible peace for a human.

For thousands of years, the path to enlightenment has been made up of many steps that evolve and change depending on which path you believe. The path could be Buddhist, Hindu, Zen, Kabbalist, Pantheistic, Wiccan, New Age, Cosmically Conscious, Galactic – the list goes on and on. Here are two paths to consider:

The first is the eight steps or paths of Buddhism. In this system a person follows these eight divisions of the path will achieve spiritual enlightenment and cease suffering:

• Right understanding: Understanding that the Four Noble Truths are noble and true.
• Right thought: Determining and resolving to practice Buddhist faith.
• Right speech: Avoiding slander, gossip, lying, and all forms of untrue and abusive speech.
• Right conduct: Adhering to the idea of nonviolence (ahimsa), as well as refraining from any form of stealing or sexual impropriety.
• Right means of making a living: Not slaughtering animals or working at jobs that force you to violate others.
• Right mental attitude or effort: Avoiding negative thoughts and emotions, such as anger and jealousy.
• Right mindfulness: Having a clear sense of one’s mental state and bodily health and feelings.
• Right concentration: Using meditation to reach the highest level of enlightenment.

The second is the 5 stages of Awakening 
1. The Awakening
You may find yourself experiencing a synchronistic moment that unlocks something that was hidden within you: a remembering happens that gives you a broader understanding of your path, purpose and potential in this life. 
2. The Alarm Clock
After you have found yourself awake, you begin to view life before your awakening as though it was just a dream. It becomes impossible to understand how you ever lived with a different point of view, and relating to others still stuck in that mindset becomes very frustrating. You may find that those who are sleeping are not ready to be woken up, and would prefer to hit the “snooze button.”
3. The Purge
As you are devouring a whole new set of programming, knowledge, and understanding – you may find yourself wanting to “purge” all of the information you are learning. The best way to facilitate an awakening for others is to lead by example. 
4. Acceptance
The quote by Manly P. Hall stating, “experiences are the chemicals with which the philosopher experiments,” is the key to acceptance. No matter how much you learn, devour, remember, and appreciate – the only way to integrate all of what you are experiencing in your evolution of consciousness is to experience it in your three-dimensional reality. 
5. Understanding/ Enlightenment
When the awakening first happened you may have found that you felt an extremely strong need to put a name to the new spiritual you have acquired. When your understanding of spirit is fully integrated, you come to realize that to be truly enlightened, you do not need a label or to be named. 



Most commonly when you begin this path it begins with an awareness of misunderstandings that lead to pain, the pain then leads to growth, growth leads to clarity, clarity leads to fun, fun leads to joy, and joy leads to true illumination. May I recommend skipping to the fun part?

Ever wondered?

From time to time, I have sat back and wondered why I was so hard on myself when I did not demand the same from others. I wonder if we forget the unimaginable depth of the great love we were born of and if we realize or understand how much more our lives have been made possible by others.

Others, who will follow if we give of ourselves and demand more of ourselves than we do of them.  Having said that I do believe that from time to time we should cut ourselves a bit more slack, smell more flowers, and hold more hands. Live life in appreciation of the love that we were born with and meant to share. 

Dream a little

When it comes to setting aside a little time each day to visualize, look at it like this: 

No matter how distracted you become or how confused you are about the process, the simple fact that you gave your dream this time and attention means that you did it correctly, you did it long enough, and that by the time you open your eyes, already in the unseen, huge wheels have begun turning. 

Seashells: Artifacts of the Ocean

I recently took a vacation to the beach on the Australian Gold Coast. I love the smell of the ocean breeze and the way the sun beats down on me as the motion of the waves calms my every worry in the world. I could literally spend years on the beach and never regret a moment of it.

One of my favourite beach activities is searching for seashells. There are millions of seashells in the ocean that come from a wide variety of creatures. They all look different and each has their own personalities that come across in the divots and impressions in the shells.

As I was looking for my seashells, I had a thought. The ocean is a vast body of secrets that has a story underneath that no one really knows about. So, in essence, each sea shell tells a different, but small, portion of the ocean’s story. They are true artifacts of the ocean that show what the ocean has been, is now and will be in the future.

Pretty deep if you think about it. Just like each person has a different story and a different set of artifacts that they take with them from day to day, so do the seashells at the beach. Each has experienced its own part of the story of the vast ocean and has lived to tell about it. Making it on to the beach is its way of trying to get the story out to the world.

I kept thinking about this as I made my way down the beach with my collection of beautiful shells. Each had a different shape, colour and texture and each was beautiful in its own way.

We have our own stories so in essence, we are like the seashells in the ocean of life. We each carry our own personal artifacts with us that are a representation of what we have experienced in our lives and we really cannot share our true experiences with anyone other than ourselves. Other people will see the artifacts on our skin and the laugh lines on our face, but they will never truly know our story, just like we will never know the story of the ocean or the seashells.

The point was not to be too philosophical, but to realise that people are all unique and we are special in all of our own ways. People do not take the time to realise that anymore and when they don’t realise it, they lose a bit of their identity each time they forget about it.

So, remember you are an artifact of the world and you tell your own unique story in the world, just like seashells tell the story of the ocean, piece by piece. People don’t feel like they are important enough and thinking about this idealistic notion will make you feel better about your place in the world and realise that we are all important in our own way.

Dare to Take a Chance

Life is a gamble, and the desire to be secure, is deep within us. What we have to understand that the only places to find security are when we lock ourselves away. We put restrictions on ourselves in an effort to be secure. 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs puts safety and security at the base of the hierarchy, with good reason. We need to feel safe so we can build our world, but some of us, focus on the need to be safe, and it becomes all encompassing, we become like prisoners, inmates in our own jail. Inmates are assured a roof over their heads, food and warmth and no responsibilities.

Unfortunately, it's all too easy to reel off a list of bad things that could happen to us. For some people, it's easier than thinking of the good things that could happen.

People who crave security are slaves to a vivid imagination that conjures up bad news items that could happen to them, and they allow these images to cripple their actions. They are too afraid to start because of all the things they imagine that could go wrong. They are too frightened to sell up and buy a larger house in another area because the house prices could drop or the children won't like the new schools, or... and so it goes on for an endless list.

When you were a child and you felt safe, you loved surprises and believed that life was fun and exciting because of they felt safe. As you grew up and you fought for security, you eliminated the risks but in doing so you may have eliminated the element of surprise in your life and may have limited your chances to achieve more.

If you want to make your life meaningful and full of excitement, you need to remove your need to be safe as the overarching goal of you life. You need to dare to:

1.   Be individual.

2.   Develop your own style - instead of following fashion.

3.   Study and work to improve yourself in your profession.

4.   Have a positive mental attitude

5.   Have the courage to try.

In other words: Dare to take a chance.

Gain the feeling of Accomplisment

I started working when I was seven, delivering papers, over the next 60 years, I never stopped working. Many of us have done the same, worked hard, played hard and had success and failures. Now, over the years, I have had that feeling of accomplishment, triumph, and sublime joy that immediately follows a job well done. When that happens, I have learned to reward my self with a victory cheer or a fresh, hot pizza delivered to my door.

What is wrong with having that feeling now. 

Go on. Give it to yourself, and ignore the rules. 

Changes in latitude, changes in attitude

My thanks to Ronni over at “As Time goes buy” for this  idea

Maybe we all think about how we have changed as we age. Jung and others believe that we go through a process of renewal as we face aging.

As we age, our interests, beliefs and convictions change; for the better for many and for the worse for some. Some of us become more optimistic as we examine and test the beliefs we have acquired over our lifetime. 

For some the beliefs and convictions we held are found to be tried and true and we stick with them, for some, the beliefs and convictions of a lifetime are found to be lacking. Lacking in compassion, humanity, empathy or common sense and we come to a crises of self.

My friends and I have different views on religion, and politics but over the years we have learned to accommodate the others views and to learn about how their views shape their world. I never was one to suffer fools gladly. When I was young I was not above putting down those who had differing views to mine. I did not listen to any ideas the person had, if I believed them to be not philosophically or politically aligned with my thinking. 

A few years before I retired, I was fortunate to start working with a cancer survivor, who had a wonderful and different view of the world. Her attitude was infectious and I learned to accept all people even those who I found to be not in line with my thinking. I learned to listen to people and to see the best in them. At first it was a hard to do, I had to adjust my thinking, my beliefs and my convictions and it took a long time. Over an eight-year period I grew and became a better person because of my interaction with her and my ability to learn.

Since I have retired, I have continued to see the best in people and I have taken on the tasks of aging and I feel positive and hopeful about the world. At this point we are in dark times yet we have seen darker times, (Two World Wars, the Plagues of Europe, the pan-epidemic of Aides) yet the world continues to become a better place for all of us.  

Jimmy Buffets song Changes in Attitudes is a great way to 

end this post. Enjoy!

Dream

Having a dream... Courage.

Visualizing your dream... Persistence.

Physically moving towards your dream... Guts.

Letting go of the "cursed hows"... Wisdom.

The look on your friends faces, , when they see you on the red carpet... Priceless.

Welcome Home

Sometimes it's easy to forget that everyone's just trying to find their way home.  As we age, home is the idealized vision of what we had when we were youngsters.

Home was a time or a place, when our friends were all truly the best of friends and we were all hero's, at least in our own minds. We had dreams of conquering the world, and if our dreams did not work out, we believed that we would be welcome and made to feel safe and protected at home. 

As we moved into the world, (what we tried and did, kind of started as a dare) to see who might love the deepest, no matter how lost the others became we felt safe in the knowledge that we could return home.

So when we or the others were lost, home was the beacon and light that we could all move back to and feel safe.

Now as you look back over your life and perhaps yearn to go home to that simpler time you should realize that your children and grandchildren, see where you are as the home they can feel safe to come home to when they have a need. 

Gosh, how you have been missed, welcome home!

What say you?

Some people, say life is hard. Some say it is not. 

Some people say life is easy. Some say it is not. 

Some say living life is lonely, tricky, or a test. 

Some say living is not lonely, tricky or a test. 

Life is only a reflection,  of whatever you belief. 

What say you? 

For what you believe determines how you approach your dreams. I believe that as surely as mountains are to be climbed and oceans sailed, your dreams are meant to come true. 

This is why you're here to live the life of your dreams. 

Not to be tested, challenged, and tried, but to conquer, champion, and rule. 

Keep going, forge ahead, press on, and the day must dawn when your thirsts shall be quenched, and you, exalted. 

Never settle for less, don't ever think it's too late, and never, ever, ever compromise a dream. 

Be in the moment

In case you haven't caught on,

You are not where you now think you are. 

You are not what you now think you are. 

You are not even who you now think you are. 

Because even to think, in spite of its fantastic power to manifest, is to limit. 

So be in the moment and enjoy 

Welcome to Sadie Hawkins Day (of sorts) Thirty days hath September

On this last Monday of February, a little whimsy:

First a song we learned in school, this is an old version that was traditionally sung (source unknown):

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November.

All the rest have thirty-one,

Except February alone,

Which has twenty-eight, in fine,

And each leap year twenty-nine.

Do you remember Sadie Hawkins Day? It was first mentioned in the November 15, 1937 Li'l Abner daily strip, is a spin-off of the tradition that gives women the “right” to propose to a man, every four years. Al Capp changed the date and turned the event into a race, with the race actually taking place between November 19 and November 30.

The tradition of a woman proposing on a leap year has been attributed to various historical figures. One, although much disputed, was St Bridget in the 5th Century. She is said to have complained to St Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to propose. St Patrick then supposedly gave women a single day in a leap year to pop the question - the last day of the shortest month.

The right of every women to propose on 29th February each leap year goes back hundreds of years when the leap year day had no recognition in English law (the day was 'leapt over' and ignored, hence the term 'leap year'). It was decided that the day had no legal status, meaning that a break in tradition on this day was acceptable.

So on this day women can take advantage of this anomaly and propose to the man they wish to marry.

The practice of women proposing in a leap year is different around the world. In Denmark, it is not supposed to be 29 but 24 February, which hails back to the time of Julius Caesar. A refusal to marry by Danish men means they must give the woman 12 pairs of gloves. In Finland, it is not gloves but fabric for a skirt and in Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky, leading many couples to avoid it.

In Scotland, however, to ensure success, women should also wear a red petticoat under their dress - and make sure that it is partly visible to the man when they propose.

For those wishing to take advantage of this ancient tradition, 29th February is your day!

Other interesting things about this day:

Why is February 29, not February 31, a leap year day? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, but February suffered from the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. Under Julius Caesar, February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus was emperor, he was peeved that his month - August - had only 29 days, whereas the month named after his predecessor Julius - July - had 31. "He pinched a couple of days for August to make it the same as July. And it was poor old February that lost out

Every fourth year is a leap year, as a rule of thumb. But that's not the end of the story. A year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400, is not. So 2000 was a leap year under the Gregorian calendar, as was 1600. But 1700, 1800 and 1900 are not leap years. There's a good reason behind it.

The year is 365 days and a quarter long - but not exactly. If it was exactly, then you could say it was every four years. But it is very slightly less." The answer arrived at by Pope Gregory XIII and his astronomers when they introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, was to lose three leap days every 400 years. The maths has hung together ever since.

Are you the coffee, the egg or the carrot?

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her – her husband had cheated on her and she was devastated. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her grandmother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The grandmother then asked the granddaughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the grandmother asked the granddaughter to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, grandmother?’

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her granddaughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity? Do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

May we all be like the COFFEE.

This story is from Up Moments

Are you Happy?

This just in no matter how happy you have ever been, even at your happiest, it won't come close to how happy you will one day be. 

Trust me, I'm there now 

The Tasks of Ageing: Life Review

Life review involves a critical examination of one’s life leading toward reconciliation between the good and the bad we have had in our life. If we do this review truthfully we can start on a process for removing regret and anger from our worldview.

But representing the past in the context of Jung’s task of life review is a matter quite different from wallowing in nostalgic reverie. Making a decision to purse this task is not about turning over in one's mind our own wonderful depictions of our youth, Instead, it's about reflections on life and lessons learned as we age. Our mandate for this task is not to relive the past, but to seek a deeper understanding of who we are by viewing the past through a transparent lens ground our life experiences.

Over time we have created a story of our life that fits our purpose and our understanding of who we are or who we want to become. We come to know ourselves only through stories, we listen to the stories of others, we inherit the stories of those who came before, and we make sense of our own experiences by constructing a narrative that holds them, and holds us, together. Our stories are how we make sense of our lives. When we undertake our life review, one of our goals is to understand if our stories actually reflect the real us.

Given the luxury of our years, we bring a perspective on not only our life that was not possible to use when we were young and of even less interest to us when we were middle aged when life was consumed with concern for security and achievement.

Instead the we can look back on the twists and turns of our life with a more measured gaze. Some things, we thought had great value at one age, now we know have little value. Over time we have come to know that what lasts in life, what counts in life, what remains in life after all the work has been completed are the relationships that sustained us, not the trophies we collected on the way. Our Life Review highlights which relationships we value most.

For the first time in life, we have time to enjoy the present. The morning air is filled with the promise of a wonderful day; the park become our observation deck on the world. The library is now the crossroads of the world, small children a new delight and a companion, we delight as we watch they explore their way through life again.

We experience a form of liberation that comes with being age. The competition and stress that comes with trying to find a place in today's highly impersonal economy fade away as I can do what I like, wear what I like, say what I like without bartering my very survival for it.

For the first time in years it is possible simply to be a person in search of a life. The need to reek of competence and approval gives way to the need to enjoy life. As we examine our Life review we can appreciate this freedom even more.

We have the luxury of attending to people now rather than to things. And out of that attention comes a new sense of being really important to the world. One of the great blessings of being our age is not that it isolates us but that, ironically, it ties us more tightly to the people around us

Finally, we have a responsibility to distill for those close to us, the real meaning of life. The quality of our reflections on life are so different than those younger and if we through our examination of our life review or true to ourselves our reflections will, certainly be listened to. We have a responsibility to show those that are younger that behind all the hustles of life lies a deep pool of peace 

We can do this by our devotion to solitude, to prayer, to reading, to the arts, to the simple work of gardening, to the great questions of the age. 

Through our life review we show our continuing commitment to building a city, a country, a world that will be better for all when we move on. This  may be the greatest lesson of life we can give the younger generation; it may be the greatest insight they every have, and it starts with our life review.

Miracles

The reason most people don't recognize the miracles that are performed on their behalf, is because there's just so bloomin' many of them. 

Like this very moment... A hummingbird feeds on the flowers outside my window

And this one... A baby takes his/her first steps

And this one... An eagle soars over the trees near the river

and on and on and on, but we forget that miracles are with us everyday and we have to take the time to appreciate them. Life is good

Welcome to all of our new citizens

To all of our new citizens who are arriving here this month and in the upcoming months. Some of you have come here as refugees' and others have had less hazardous journeys. To all  WELCOME.

I hope you find peace and prosperity in our wonderful country as my Grandparents did when they came to this country at the beginning of the last century.

My Mom's parents were both born in different parts of Romania and both came to Canada at the beginning of the 20th Century and met in a small town in Saskatchewan; my Dad's parents were both born in the USA and came here in the 1920's and lived in a small town in Saskatchewan.

So as a second generation born Canadian, I am proud to welcome all of the new Canadians and hope their life in Canada will be as successful as my families was in this beautiful, wonderful, free country.

An American, Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Northern Virginia wrote an essay 2001 to help define what a American is to the world. I have adapted and changed it a bit as have many over time. The essay was adapted by some on the Internet to describe Canadians.

I am posting this version so you can use this as a primer to begin to understand who we believe we are and who you will become as a citizen of one of the best places in the world to live.

I think the essay applies to both countries citizens; although I believe that in policy and direction the Canadian Government is, I think, at this time more tolerant to refugees than the US Government.

As individuals Canadians and Americans are very much alike. Citizens of both countries can take pride in what was written by Professor Ferrara and what was changed by the citizens of the Internet to reflect what they believed Canada stood for; it is time for Americans to also stand up and be proud of what they stand for as well. So I think if you are American then substitute the word American when you see the word Canadian.

A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek or Romanian, or from the USA.

A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

A Canadian is also a member of the First Nation who may call themselves Tsimshian; Haida; Salish; Kwakiutl; Blackfoot; Cree; Chipewyan; Algonquin; Míkmaq; Iroquois; Huron. Innu, Abenaki or Mi'kmaq.

A Canadian may be Metis or a member of the Inuit Nation.

A Canadian's religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or none.

In Canada we are free to worship as each of us chooses. Whether we have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to their own version of God; government in Canada does not interfere with our right to worship or not worship as we believe.

A Canadian lives in one of the most free lands in the history of the world. The root of that freedom can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognize the right of each person to "life, liberty and security of the person"

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds. But they also welcome the least - the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada.

You can try to hurt a Canadian as other tyrants in the world have tried but in doing so you could just be hurting a relative or a neighbour.

This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian.

Please feel welcome and take the best we can give; but give us the best you can be.

Finally, remember to  keep your stick on the ice EH!