the ocean

And they are us
by

And they are us

The heroes of the past haunt us with their defiant perseverance.  Here us,  oh mortal man, we are your blood, your kin, your heart, your soul, your mind.  We are your yesterdays, your todays and your tomorrows.  We are the spirits of the conscience that will not die.  We live forever, oh mortal human.  Live forever and you will never die.

We are the example of your spirit.  The uncontested might, the strength, the courage, the path less followed, but always sought after.  We are the yearnings of your soul.  The leaders of the pack, the fortitude of the confident, skilled, accomplished human from anywhere.  We choose ourselves, to be the champions, we choose our lives to be the heartbreak.  Follow our footsteps, everyday heroes, test your strength against ours and feel the worthy soul of a brilliant life, cast in clay, dust and joy.  All that we live for is joy.

Joy!  Feel your heart sing!  Your call to order.  Claim your place.  Choose your prize.  The hero is you.

To follow in the path of a brilliant ancestor is a call to challenge your own space and time.  Limitless resources, limitless time, limitless company.  The path is the same, the company different, the skills unknown.  Would you dare to pursue the same adventure?  Would you dare to be a voyageur?

http://www.tfo.org/emissions/rendezvousvoyageur/en/world/worklife/daybrigade.html

The rivers are still tumultuous.  As long as they ever were.  The North Saskatchewan River passes through three provinces.  The Columbia River’s headwaters are in Canada and it ends at the Pacific Ocean in the United States.  Hundreds of kilometers of travel in voyageur canoes. Would you be the awesome voyageur.  The weeks of travel in open canoes, paddling hundreds of kilometers of rivers, battling currants, weather and fatigue.  Epic voyages of grand adventure.  To retrace the paths of centuries old man.  To relive the challenge of that call to adventure, that companionship, endurance, nature and freedom.  The love of the open water, the risk and the self worth.  To be the champion!  To rise to the call  of your heart and your mind.  To cast aside the daily toil.  What is a human?  What is it that is humanly possible?  The unreachable star.

The test of strength is good for the body and the test of will is good for the mind.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fort-Langley-Canoe-Club-2013-Fraser-Brigade/195684620567080

Play!  The joy of being, the fun of it all.   Play!  For sport, for relaxation, for companionship, for fun and for your body.  Come you awesome human.  Follow your ancestors on a path to glory.  Come and join the grand adventure of your life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLCBXdTA0Yg

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 23, 2013

www.bbcanada.com/10895.html

David Thompson
by

David Thompson

1814 map of the Pacific Northwest and central ...

1814 map of the Pacific Northwest and central Canada by David Thompson. The Kootenay River is shown near the bottom left as McGillivray’s River. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Always, there are heroes.  Always there are those whose feats are more daring, whose lives are more accomplished, whose endeavors more respected, whose praises more deserving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Thompson_(explorer)

A name rings out from our history.  A name of the fur trade, a name of accomplishment, unparalleled achievement, a surprise!  A victory for us in the mapping of the land.  The long stretches of river lay before them, the endless land.  On it goes, seemingly forever.  The land, the water, the endless travel, the constant voyage.  How far?  To map the country, how far?

Day after day, the endless journey.  Mile after mile the endless mapping, negotiation, fur trading and establishing fur trading posts.   On and on into the annals of history for this one persistent and indomitable being.  The great negotiation saves us and the great negotiation lasts forever.

This almighty human was David Thompson and the great negotiation was his metis bride, Charlotte Small.  Together they travelled thousands of kilometers throughout the country.  On and on, mile after mile with a mission to accomplish an enormous feat.  The endless mapping, the constant surveying, the passion!  It must be done.  The thousands of kilometers of surveyed land all throughout Canada and Northern United States.

http://www.thefurtrapper.com/david_thompson.htm

To pass the route to another.  No more the unknown land.  No more the fear of failure, the lost souls of the misguided would now have a marked route, a secure map, a written guide.  Someone has gone before and secured the way, spoken to the people, traded, claimed the unknown, claimed the land and its people and saved their lives.

Oh, to be the aptitude of the brave and daring.  To set the pace of adventure, skills, knowledge and courage. To be the champion.

The vast river system of continental Canada and northern United States provided a lifetime of travel and adventure and professional pursuits as well.  From Ontario to the Pacific, down the Columbia River to it’s end at the Pacific Ocean, down to the Mississippi River,  along the boarder of Canada and the United States, north to Lake Athabasca.

The spirit soars in a human who has no disability, only a limp and the loss of site in one eye.  All of the surveying, the astronomical calculations, the travel by canoe, horseback, on foot, limping along an unknown course, his vision impaired by loss of site.  No disability here.  Only the passion, only the drive, only the will to succeed and the call of adventure.

Come, almighty man!  Becons the great unknown and the adventure begins.  It ends with the congratulation for the achievement “the greatest land geographer who ever lived”  For mapping millions of kilometers of land and producing maps so accurate they were used in Canada for approximately 150 years.

Hail bravehearts.  Let your stories be known.

In a nation of fantastic achievers, one name calls to us from the past.  I live forever.  I am David Thompson.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 17, 2013

www.bbcanada.com/10895.html

http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

Coureur des bois
by

Coureur des bois

Bonjour, almighty human.  Welcome to this day.

This is an awesome day of great courage, adventure, exploration and discovery.  A day filled with the life of brilliant mankind, the negotiator, the peacekeeper, the intellectual, the athlete.

The investigation and settlement of our great nation comes from the brilliant aspirations of great minds, healthy bodies, bold and courageous spirit and constant daring.  To travel where no European had gone before.  To take the challenge of everyday courage and to explore a land of unknown peril,  sometimes, to fight the unbeatable foe.

To take up trade items and to develop trade routes through a land of changing conditions, constantly battling the weather,  negotiating treaties, fighting the currants of swift flowing rivers.  The constant negotiation for good relations, the constant perils of unseen deathtraps.  The unknown, always, the unknown.

The passage into the interior of the country was mainly by water. Rivers, lakes, canoes!  The canoe of the Coureur de Bois, laden with trade items to maintain the negotiated peace with the native peoples.  Trade for wealth, trade for exploration, trade for peace.  A land established by the peaceful negotiation of mutual prosperity.

http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_furtrade/fp_furtrade2.html

Hail Bravehearts!  For the peace amongst you was for the beneficial, mutual prosperity of the peoples of the nation.  The negotiated peace was trade to make your lives easier, trade to make your lives more secure, trade to reduce barriers, strengthen bonds, build congenial relationships, allow exploration and the building of forts and settlements.  Trade, without hostility, trade to connect to an unknown peoples, trade for influence and to reduce war faring.

Trade to encourage contact, to learn new ways, to respect.  Trade.  The nation was built from trade.  Not only trade in commodities, but trade in culture and language as well.  The curiosity of the peoples reduced their hardships and the mutual respect saved their lives.

The Coureur de Bois, with canoes laden with items for trade, navigated the lakes and river systems of this great land.  They explored the country, opened the nation, found new river highways to travel throughout the country.  They negotiated the great peace, survived the call to the wild.

Come, beckons the great land.  Come!

The courageous explorers paddled their canoes into the heart of the dark, foreboding stillness.  The great wild!  Where only the birds call and the penetrating quiet of life deafens the thunder of remote civilization.  Gone is the city.  Now, the only street is the river.  The thunder is now the rapids and the gossip comes from the birds.

Wonderful peace!  The wild allures.  The remote shore, the distant horizon, the untravelled land.  The unrivalled superiority.  All of this for the freedom of adventure, for the challenge of a great day, a life of unrivalled adventure.  All of this for the building of a great nation, a great life and a bold and daring existence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coureur_des_bois

Welcome, to the Coureur de Bois for the lasting peace.  For exploration and community and for the fight that beats the unbeatable foe.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 13, 2013

www.bbcanada.com/10895.html

http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

The St Lawrence River
by

The St Lawrence River

English: Map of Jacques Cartier's second voyag...

English: Map of Jacques Cartier’s second voyage to North America in 1535-6. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Good Day!  You Awesome Human.

As we explore our great country through Rivers to Oceans week, we celebrate the daring, the courage, the monumental feats of bravery.  The country was explored and opened by brave hearts.

The exploration by Jacques Cartier in 1534 to 1542 was the first European exploration of the St. Lawrence River.

The oceans brought the European to the already well inhabited land.  The country had been populated for thousands of years already, by migrants who crossed the northern land mass and settled in  the continent.

The Europeans crossed the oceans in a daring adventure of exploration, to discover what lies beyond the horizon and to unite worlds separated by water, tides, waves, weather, distance and fortitude.

Only your dreams will push you on, only your nightmares will stop you!

The bold adventurers came, onward, onward, into the straits of the St. Lawrence and pushed their crafts farther into the heart of the nation.  The contact was made, the discovery excels.  A new people, a new world, new trade, new prosperity.   The St. Lawrence River was the channel of discovery for these fortunate mariners.  It brought them fame, fortune, trade and the exhilarating right of conquest.  It secured their mission, proved their aptitude, yes, almighty human, the doors to the nation opened and the country let them in.

The mighty St. Lawrence River was the pathway to prosperity, negotiation, settlement and pride.  Oh, you worthy stalwart, to set sail on that day, one day, for the quest of your lives, for the rest of your lives.  To be the history, the making of a great nation.  To be the almighty man.

That one awesome, inspired day, became the might and greatness of several great nations.  Jacques Cartier for France visited a country named for a collection of huts.  Kanata!  And so it was born.  Born from the passage of a great river, born from the passage of a great ocean.  Born from brilliant aptitudes of navigation, sailing, shipbuilding, negotiation, leadership, compassion and daring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_cartier

The bold adventurer seeks the challenge and the brilliant aptitudes achieves it.

The consequential negotiation brought fantastic prosperity to France.  The oceans yielded a seemingly unlimited harvest of fresh fish for the hungry. Food in abundance, led early settlers to a new land, a new life of promise.  The negotiation was successful, colonization was possible.  The impossible dream would be attempted.

For France the colony meant new lands, new life, new wealth.  The daring challenge was met, the conquest told.  Oh you fortuitous stalwarts, climb aboard.  Climb aboard for the adventure of you life.  There’s no looking back.  And so they did.   Pioneers who could settle an unknown nation, with unknown plants and soil.  To cut a tract of land for farming, build houses, invent.   To set the course of history.  To be the indomitable human.

http://suite101.com/article/jacques-cartier-and-charlesbourgroyal-a173492

The first colony was on the banks of the mighty St. Lawrence River.  It didn’t last, but the failure didn’t stop  them.  Another attempt would be made.

Rivers to Oceans.  This week is for us. This is our cultural heritage.  From rivers and oceans our nation was born.

Hail, almighty human.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 12, 2013

www.bbcanada.com/10895.html

http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

Rivers to Oceans Week
by

Rivers to Oceans Week

Congratulations you awesome being.  This is National Rivers to Oceans Week and this is our cultural heritage.

The immense cover of ice and snow that we call the Columbia Ice fields is the birthplace of some of our great rivers.  The vast sheet of ice at the border between Jasper and Banff National Parks is an awesome place of remote grandeur.  The spectacular, stark beauty of the masses of snow and mountain are a land unto themselves.  A land of life in high altitude and cold.  The streams from the melted ice are flowing with todays  first water and cascading into rivers and waterfalls, avalanches and crevases.  The ice fields are where some of our mighty historical rivers are born.  The daily melt water is the first drop of water into a river system that flows throughout most of the country

The huge icefields cover 215 square kilometers and is 300 to 360 metres deep in some places.  This massive sheet of ice provides us with clean, fresh, new water.

http://www.explorerockies.com/columbia-icefield/

Water! Our national heritage was formed from these rivers.  Great explorers ventured into our nation by these same rivers and lakes.

The historic Athabasca River, a fur trading route, is one of our national heritage rivers which starts at the Columbia Ice fields.  The importance of the Athabasca river, with its designation as a Canadian Heritage River  is its connection to exploration and the settling of the country.  The rivers in Canada played a major role in establishing the country.  Fur traders embarked on lengthy journeys of adventure and trade to explore, meet and negotiate trade with the indigenous peoples.

The fur trade was the most important industry in the country in the early years of settlement.

http://www.chrs.ca/en/main.php

The Columbia Ice Fields are also the source of the North Saskatchewan River and the headwaters of the tributary of the Columbia River.  This is the top of the Continental divide, where waters flow to the Pacific, the Artic and to Hudson Bay.  The significance of this, is waterways all across the country.  For exploration, the waterways provided access all throughout the nation.

The mighty St Lawrence River was the first river accessed by explorers from Europe.  Jacques Cartier explored this area for France in the late 1400’s and made connections with the local people who resided near the shores.  The St. Lawrence is an access route into the interior of the country.  By exploring this route, Europeans were able to penetrate far into the nation and in doing so, discover the wealth and abundance of the land.   The sea wealth for fishing and the forest for furs.

The river and lakes system is so vast it connects one province to another through historical waterways that were travelled frequently by early explorers.

Water!  A wealth for our land. A country filled with lakes and rivers.  The play land for sports.  The abundance in fishing.  The salvation of our populace.  Our good fortune is to have water.  Clean water.  Unpolluted water.  Water filled with life.  Aquatic life, plant life, animal life and ultimately, our life.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 11, 2013

www.bbcanada.com/10895.html

http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

National Oceans Day
by

National Oceans Day

http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2013/06/07/june-8-marks-world-ocean-day-noaa%E2%80%99s-national-ocean-service-concludes-30-days-oceans–

Welcome, almighty human, to this day of salvation, memory and adventure.  Who are we, but the builder of ships, the sailor of the mighty seas, the adventurer of the ocean. To set sail, has been the adventure of our lives for thousands of years.  To set forth, to discover, to fish, to explore, to enjoy.  The oceans have always been a place for us and have always provided for us.

The vast seas with their immense variety of life forms, so many that we are still discovering them to this day.  The oceans, to their dark depths and to their far off horizon.  They compel mankind to discover.  They entice us.  What lies beneath the surface of these great waters.  Through our thousands of years of human history, the answer has always been, food!  Food for the hungry.  The oceans are plundered world wide for food.

The oceans give us plenty.  The fisherman casts his nets to save the starving world populace.  Food.

The ocean also gives us a play land of fun.  Large waves to surf in, warm beaches to lay upon, soft sand with interesting shells, warm water and curious creatures to watch.  The oceans, with their tides, the sunset, their beauty are another call to adventure for us.  Even if we are small, we still love the ocean.

There is another call to action, that the ocean brings to us.  The waste, the garbage, the  toxins, the pollution.

http://www.good.is/posts/end-plastic-pollution-pick-it-up-bin-it-take-three-for-the-sea

The garbage that ends up in the ocean, kills sealife world.  The oceans are becoming a dump of waste.  Plastics, which are recyclable and other waste are building up in the oceans and destroying water, the plant life, the reefs, the coral, the animal, the fish and the bird life.  The pristine beauty of the world, that we covet so much is vanishing to a view of discarded waste.   Plastic, paper, cans, bottles all being tossed into the water causes pollution that even this almighty planet Earth cannot control.

The awesome planet, with so much healing and creative power, can’t keep  up with the plunder, the reckless destruction, the habitat loss, the pollution, the oil spills.

Hail mankind!  As mighty as we are, we still turn to the planet to save us.  To save us from starvation, from cold, from poverty, even from despair.  We expect the awesome planet to regenerate itself, to heal and to cure itself, to replenish what we take and to repair the damage.  We assume that the awesome planet can recover and give it all back.

Not so.

The mighty planet needs help.  The mighty oceans can’t keep up with the fishing industry.  They can’t keep up with the discarded waste, they can’t keep up with the environmental damage.  They can’t keep up with the plunder.

Today is only one day.  World Oceans Day.  One day for environmental day, but this day, this one day, must last for the rest of our lives.  To  change the world takes one day and one day to last for all time.  The oceans and all of its creatures are needed for the survival of this planet.

http://www.water-pollution.org.uk/

Rejoice!  Today is the day for the Oceans.  Rejoice.  It is an awesome day.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 8, 2013