Canada Day, 2017

It’s been a peaceful day here in my little corner of Canada. I opted out of the fireworks display tonight, deciding to stay home and write. I felt compelled to speak my piece, after listening to so many others expressing, over the airwaves today, just how they felt about their country.

To be clear, we are celebrating 150 years of immigration to this land. The land and her people go back millennia. I smiled broadly when I caught the Palgrave United Church signboard this week, spelling out: O Canada, our home ON native land. That says it all.

But to get back to ‘my piece’ – To have ‘a peaceful day’ in this country is the norm. How blessed are we?

“Peace, order, and good government” is how the Constitution Act of 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) lays it out. It is often contrasted with USA’s ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. America was a nation in rebellion against the chains of imperialist Britain, kicking the traces and breaking free. ‘Liberty’ was their battle cry.

Not Canada. She did things much more carefully and orderly, but this is not to say that her people did not make mistakes. Humans make mistakes. That’s how we learn. Thank God we did learn, and are now admitting these mistakes and attempting to rectify and reconcile them.

But the first word – the best word – in that edict laid down by our Fathers of Confederation 150 years ago is ‘peace’. I would like to believe that this is the word that has steered this country through the past century and a half, no matter what. Sure we took some wrong turns. The list is written in our history and in our cultural memory, and I wince when I remember.

I don’t think that is the point. I believe that we see ourselves as a peaceful people. That is our story; so that is, on the whole, how we behave. We want to be seen as decent, caring people. And so we are. With peace as our narrative we look after each other, we welcome all creeds and races to our shores; most of us accept that we are ‘our brother’s keeper’.

And yes, there are still elements in our Canada that need fixing. Let’s all work on it. We have admitted our mistakes and that’s half the battle. We’re on the road to enlightenment. Our mission going forward is to see another as our self. The street person, the immigrant with little English, the native woman trying to rise above, the addict living a version of hell. The list is endless. The trick is to see our own light in them and to salute that light with kindness and compassion.

The God in me beholds the God in you.
Namaste.
The God in me beholds the God in you.
Namaste.
All is beautiful. All is well.
All is beautiful. All is well.

This is the sweet blessing that reminds us of who we really are.

So ‘with glowing hearts’ and brimming with gratitude, hoist that red maple leaf high, and let it flutter out over our beautiful, blessed country crowning this world with our peace, our respect, and our resolve.   Forever ‘glorious and free’.