Month: November 2015

The Wonderful Winter
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The Wonderful Winter

Hail, all you awesome ones!

The temperatures fall.  It’s cold outside.  Time to pull out the woollies, change to thermals and warm, specialized fabrics.  Time to pull out the sleighs, toboggans, skates, skis, snowboards, snowmobiles and snowshoes.  Time for winter!  Time for that specialized season of cold!

The sidewalk is bare from constant shoveling, drifts pile high and the car won’t start.  The giddiness of the festive season is upon us.  Bright lights, holiday cheers, warm welcomes, smiles and gifts.  A fabulous start to the quiet of winter, as we spend our money, plan our holidays and wish each other well, as winter’s nasty colds poke their way in. The headiness of a bustling summer is behind us.  Time to take a break and relax by the fire, bake up a storm and be happy.  Happy to relax, to watch our favourite sport, to sing holiday carols and to play in the fantastic snow!  Our economic wonder, snow!  A blessing that we don’t pay for, brought to you by the great planet.  Enjoy your winter!

We head off to ice caves, ice water falls, frozen rivers and slippery surfaces.  We head off to natural wonder, to awesome delight in the planetary change.  We are tourists in our own town, visiting the sites, bragging about the awesome wonder of the scenery, drinking the local brew and listening to the home grown bands.  We know everyone. Every face is familiar.  Each store has it’s unique specialty and the restaurants offer discounts to us starving hoards, who savor the goodness of every bite.  Laughing and playing, we love this season.  It gives us time to visit.

As wonderful as life is in the carefree summer, winter brings it’s own delight.  For those of us here in this tiny, multicultural town, winter brings us time.  Time to refresh, time to enjoy, time to stay awhile, to visit and to reunite with each other.

The festive season is starting, preparations are being made.  Holiday parties, good friends, family and cheer.  The warmth of the season, when the cold is put at bay.  A change in season is good for us.  It lets us rejoice in a whole new splendor.  Indoor coziness, outdoor frigidness, harmony, balance and avoiding frostbite.  We love this cold winter weather, when the great outdoors turns on the lights early, and we can view the splendor of the stars, planets, even the northern lights in an early, after dinner hour show.

The moon shines a path of white and the glistening snow sparkles and shines our way.  The sun sets early and rises late and the dark is upon us.  We rise in the dark, go home in the dark, and are thankful for the blessings that inventors make.

Hot chocolate and ginger snaps, sweets and treats, this is the time of year to be happy.  A blessing to share, carols to sing, a jingling of jingle bells, rings and rings.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 29, 2015

Still it Snows
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Still it Snows

Hail Bravehearts!

Awesome!  The wonder of life in a new land.  Brilliant and courageous, the spirit soars.  Life in a new land.  All unchartered, all unknown, all mysterious with secrets to reveal.

The sound of the wind as a storm blows in.  Batten down the hatches, close the shutters, stock up the wood supply, fill the larder.  The soft quiet  of winter is blowing in with the storm.  Swirling, dainty flakes of white, fill the air and the temperatures have plunged to zero. ” Let it snow!”  we sing.  “Let it snow!”  For us the first snowfall fills our lives with the changing season and brings joy to our world.  Joy to the world, the winter has come!

Mother Earth sends her children off to a deep winters sleep in hibernation.  The migrating birds have called to each other to flee the snowbound north and fly to warm destinations in the south.   The rest seek shelter in the depths of the forest, where thickets protect them and the shelter of the trees hide them from the elements and the cold.

Winter.  The Earth wraps it’s sleepy head in a soft blanket of snow and sleeps.

The snow falls, it’s quiet intrusion freezes the ground and the lakes and now the water sleeps.  Deep change with the deep freeze and winter storms and icy blasts greet us for the next few months.  Snow!  It piles high.  Higher and higher.  A few inches, a few feet, higher and higher.  While those snug in their warm homes watch in anticipation of the changing season, the snow comes.  Beautiful and white,  dazzling in the sun.  The spectacular change is a gorgeous site.  Still it snows!  It snows relentlessly.  It snows, and snows and snows.

http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/Canada/snowiest.php  Snowiest places in Canada

The animals vanish and the world is changed.  Higher and higher the snow piles in deep feet of snow.  The weather persists.  Winter storms rage in.  A tiny colony of stalwart humans, set in for the long winters’ sleep.  The larder is full, the woodpile stocked high, prepared for the winter and ready for anything, the tiny colony waits out the deep chill.  And it snows!

Our greatest passions are winter fun, winter play and winter sports, but for us, survival is expected.  We are secure now, in our grand and special place.   A place of sport and hospitality, of snowmen and snow angels.  We learn at an early age to enjoy the spectacular change in season and the joy and privilege that it brings.  A breed of sportsmen, playing and laughing, thrilled for the joy that winter brings.

But a small colony of people, out in the lonely wild, of eastern Canada, did not enjoy the snowbound world so much. In the early 1600’s our great joy of winter, was their peril.  The sleepy, quiet snow, lulled the great planet to sleep.  It nodded it’s great head in slumber and the world slept.  In darkness and cold, the colony sank into slumber as well. The tragedy of the cold, snowy, winter, taking its toll of human life, as temperatures plunged, as the snow fell, as food rations were depleated and disease set in and many lives were lost.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 23, 2015

It Persists
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It Persists

Hail, oh brilliant ones!

The morning shines with light and warmth, the shadows of the darkness pass.  Into this world comes the strong passion of the rising soul.  Now, another day, another quest, another memory.  Each day lived brings us closer to the cause.  To peace, security, life and prosperity.  The greatest achievement in the minds of mankind.  To build a nation and to be one.

To be one with the land, to be one with the people, to join in a massive undertaking of privilege and success.  To be the ones who made it real, to set the stage of your own destiny, to carve footsteps for others to follow, to be the unbeatable champion.  Rise all of you.  Rise to glory.  It is with duty that you come forward, but it is  glory that you aspire to.  Rise, oh champions.  This is your day.

This day, of setting the boundaries, of felling trees, of building dwellings.  This day of toil, of laborious, hard work, of companionship, of perspective and perseverance.  This is a day of duty, of care, of obligations.  This is just another day, way out there.

Way out across the ocean in a land of newness and wild.  The great wild.  So tempting and so secretive, so majestic and so dangerous.  In unison they toil and in unison they strive, to build a fortress of security to protect themselves, shelter, and keep them, in this brave new world.

The great wild is lurking, we hear the howls in the night.  The barks of canine species as they call.  The hoots and coos, of the unknown, the swirling flight of night creatures, the croaks and chorus of singing sounds, the eyes of creatures in the dark.  The night in the forest, so loud and alive, as hunting and singing and playing rings in our ears and the watchful wild stare in the dark, lurking and forbidding us to trespass.  The night sky, a shining mass of stars and the brightness of the moon casts shadows across the grass.  The insects sing in a deafening crescendo and the sounds of the night in the forest fill their dreams and disturb a restful sleep. The wild, so haunting and forbidding, so silent and so eerie.

But the test for a colony comes from adaptability,  foresight, ingenuity and preparedness.  The strength to carry on. The ability to survive.  Good leadership,  sound judgement, skills and ability.  Determination.

http://www.lookbackward.com/perrault/perr1/newfrance/  A Brief History of New France

Here, in the wild frontier of Canada, where hope and dreams and dares and challenges fill their every day, comes the human of fortitude.  An illustrious European, with desires of grandeur, with minds focused on a colony, with dreams of prosperity.  Persevere, oh great ones.  All is for fame, for fortune and for us.  It is for a place in history and a place for you.  A new world!

Oh awesome human, venture forth.  To a new world!  To a new beginning!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 15, 2015

In The Beginning
by

In The Beginning

Good Day Bravehearts!

Welcome to this awesome new day.  The world brings light into your lives, life into your existence and hope to those who sing for  it.  Brave new world, a world of hope and inspiration.  A world of challenges and excitement.  A world for the bold, the daring, the skilled and the champions.  Light our lives, oh daring adventurers, for the great good earth has presented a brave new world for exploration, adventure and settlement.  Light our lives, oh torches of strength and courage, as the great swells of the ocean, cast you about and hurl you through the darkest and most dangerous storms, to a landing of somewhat safety.  Cast your doubts aside and persevere, oh bold and talented chosen ones. The angels fly and their wings surround you as you step to the chosen shore.  Safety.  The security of the land, the chosen place of a new birth, the cultivation of civilization, wrought from the timbers of the land.

An opportunity so profound, it could not be overlooked.  The opportunity of life, of fortune, of fame, of grandeur, all for the sake of a few strong souls who could make it real.  The hope of success, the plea for courage, the compelling need to try.  The fortune hunter, the inspired authority, the wealth of riches, the greed of plunder.  Dreams, inspiration, imagination and flights of fancy.  The mind races with prospects of achievement, the brain spins with possibilities.  Unlimited opportunity for those who dare.  A new world.  A new life.  A new beginning.  To be on the breaking edge of new discovery, new possibility, new everything!  A chance.   A roll of the dice.

Sooth sayers, fortune tellers, tarot readers, crystal balls.  What does the future hold?  Tell us, oh wise and enchanted ones.  What does it say?  Will we be rich?  Will we survive?  Give us your answer!  Tell us our fortunes!  Will we survive.

Our luck is surrounding us, the King pledges his trust.  His command is omnipotent.

Bold and daring, we must adventure, to cultivate a civilization from the forest of a far flung world.  A world of temptation, of persuasion, of allure. The call of this land is the song of the siren, enchanting and haunting it begs us to stay.

” Come!”, whispers the wind, and the swaying branches wave us ashore.  The rustling leaves catch the sunlight and play with our senses.  A pretty sight.  A friendly world.  A breathtaking, heart stopping, thought.

Build it!  Build it and they will come.  The fortune seekers, the treasure hunters, the rich and the poor.  Build it and they will come.

To the might of France, to the power of the authority of the King.   A brave new world, a fabulous civilization, fashioned from the rough hewn timbers of the forest.  An indomitable human spirit.   The sailor, the ministry, the adventurer, the pioneer.  The champions of new life, new liberty, new beginnings.  The torch shines brightly for the souls of those days, as we feast from the harvest of their workmanship, negotiation and peace.

Hail, almighty ones, a country is in the making.  Hail oh bravehearts, your backs are breaking.  The long and difficult journey to a colony is at hand.

To greatness!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 1, 2015