Happy Canada Day!

I continue to ride high on the euphoria from the results of my last cat scan - NO new areas of concern and the cells in my liver have reduced in size.  Amazing.  It's funny to me though how I absolutely do not relate to my illness, maybe because other than the medication side effects, I'm pretty much asymptomatic.  I feel so blessed to have felt so relatively well throughout these adventures and thank everyone for their ongoing prayers.

The clinical side of things, I learned over the past month or so, is that I am deemed to be permanently and totally disabled given that the original source has spread to three organs putting me at overall stage 4 although the cells in my liver are considered stage 2.  My doctors continue to fill out reams of paperwork to satisfy the requests of various stakeholders including insurance companies, you'd think there might be some sort of system to make things easier.  No need to go on about this, I believe I've ranted on this subject in a previous post.

The month of June has brought many highs compared to this time last year when my back decided it wouldn't hold me up any longer.  We've celebrated 3 family birthdays - Happy Birthday Nathalie (20), Gabe (23) and Lauren (1).

 I also surpassed the bizarre anniversary of reading a note to my medical file last June 25th that I had less than a year to live.  But then whoever the author was, besides being totally wrong, had no idea of who they were dealing with!  We enjoyed the wedding of friends on the summer solstice and I found a labyrinth in Carleton Place that I walked - having wanted to do so for quite a long time now.  Not sure of the spiritual outcome - I may have been expecting more - but what else is new?

I'm not sure why I want to talk to you about this next subject matter but most of these posts start out as vague, general ideas and then the keyboard does the work.  Well, not really, we all know I get lots of help from the Holy Spirit.  Having said that, and just after watching some of the Canada Day celebrations on tv, I guess it makes perfect sense to ponder what makes up this great country that we live in.

Have you ever had the sensation of crying without realizing you were actually tearful?  It has only happened once in my life, several years ago when taking a morning walk to Pier 21 in Halifax while at a fundraising conference.  A colleague and I had planned to tour the museum be I decided to scout things out ahead of time only to learn it wasn't open yet.  No matter but as I approached the old rail cars outside the museum, I could almost sense the people getting on board with emotions of all sorts almost bursting at the seams of these newly minted residents of Canada.

The reason I bring this up is it was that experience that led me to believe I would have a further emotional epiphany once arriving in the land of my heritage - Hungary.  But it wasn't to be.  Being home now for almost a month, the sense I have is being more settled, having seen where my family comes from and experienced a sense of the culture and lifestyle of the people of this small country bordered by several nations.

For a moment though I'd like to go back to the Pier 21 experience.  You may or may not know that Halifax was the doorway to Canada for almost a million immigrants seeking a new home before the second world war and beyond.  When I met up with my colleague and toured the relatively new museum, I was overcome almost the entire morning we were there with tears off and on.  Why would that be?

My father arrived through Pier 21, literally got off a ship that had travelled several days to reach Canada, had papers processed, and walked through the building to board a train to his new life destination.  It happened to be in the Niagara Peninsula where a so called 'distantly related' relative would welcome him as his sponsors.  That was it.  It is not likely that anyone who arrived through Pier 21 had any lasting experience in that location although one can only imagine the faith, hope and anxiety many of these people, most with no command of the English language were experiencing.

I have developed my own little theory about this entire experience.  I'd rather call it a theory than an opinion so that I don't have to go to any great lengths to defend it.  It's always open to refinement and evolution based on discussions with interested parties.  Having grown up as first generation Canadian, my brother and I were both born in Canada, we did hear about and in many ways experienced the challenges of being new to a country, isolated by culture, language and the sometimes not so welcoming residents of town.  One may not fully appreciate or realize the challenges people went through having left everything behind with no knowledge of what the future might hold.

What struck me as totally profound during the visit to Pier 21, was the sincere depth of appreciation and celebration of the nearly one million people who arrived in Canada and how they have positively impacted the growth and fabric of our nation.  It has been created to give us a glimpse into the past and in some small way expose us to the more recent building of our nation.  In the past number of years of course, we have welcomed more diverse newcomers, including different races, religions, cultures and, again, languages.  The tolerance of Canadians is truly remarkable and an asset we must all treasure and develop even further.

In looking ahead to the rest of the summer, what plans do you have?  Will you find time for some relaxed, quiet reflection or will you be racing from one activity to the next trying to cram in all the 'to do' things you need to get done?  I must admit, even our calendar can fill up quickly but we are trying our best to carve out down time.  Today, part of the day was spent weeding out a garden bed and repairing a retaining wall.  Sound like fun on Canada Day?  Maybe not to many but I can't think of  too many things more satisfying than working away on your little piece of earth that you've been lucky enough to be the current owner and improve it just a little bit.

After that and a good shower, a long bike (motorcycle) ride was in order to ride through small town Ontario around the greater Kingston area and see how people were celebrating.

It seems like this is also a quiet period in terms of blogging.  I've shared what I believe to be important at this time and will be back in contact in mid July.  Enjoy your time with family and friends.  Until next time......

God Bless and Hugs,
Liz
"Prayers wrapped in faith and sent with love are the greatest gifts we can receive."