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International Day of Happiness, March 20

Good Day Brave Hearts

Have you smiled today?  Are you enjoying yourself?  Is this a good day for you?  Maybe it’s a great day for you.  A day of Sharing and Caring.  A day of happiness.

International Day of Happiness | United Nations

What does happiness mean to you?  Is it a warm hug?  A kiss from your dog?  Fellowship with loved ones or friends?  There are so many ways to enjoy your life, from the sports arenas to colouring books, reading your favourite authors, to exploring the land, gardening, crafts, singing and praising, sharing and caring.  The world needs your fine mind and your pursuits of achievement.  Happiness is part of your achievements.  Its a goal to set, to find ways to enjoy your life, in a healthy, safe and law abiding manner.  It strengthens the community, builds ties with others and creates networks of like minded  people to help you with your pursuits.

There’s a strength in being happy.

Happiness: What It Really Means and How to Find It

Happy people live longer,  have more meaningful relationships and give more community support.  There’s real value in social support, engaging with others and trying to solve issues of hardship.  There’s also real value in play.  The chance to stretch your legs, play a game and just enjoy the fun of life.  Having fun and spending time with people who you enjoy is a fulfilling past time.  It’s also very important to your life, to nurture your sense of well being.  Positive interactions with others, doing things that make you happy, helping someone else, provides positive interactions and positive reinforcement.

There is much to be gained in making contributions to your community.  Some contributions are time, some are goods, some are expertise and volunteering, some is financial, but whatever it is, the overall contributions, helps to take care of another.

Gratitude is an important factor in happiness and happiness improves overall health and well being.  It’s important to be happy and to pursue goals which help to improve happiness.  This helps with personal relationships, work force relationships and general public contacts.  Gratitude comes with sharing and caring.  It has a relationship. It’s the joy of giving and the joy of receiving.

So happiness is a means to an end and finding happiness in your life is a life long pursuit.  It’s so important, that the pursuit of happiness is included in the American Declaration of Independence and listed as an unalienable right, rather than a pursuit, or a quest.  People have the right to be happy.  People have the right to enjoy themselves, to have fun, to engage in healthy social pursuits.  People have the right to live a good life.  A good life comes with a good community, with fellowship and friends, with enjoyable social and recreational pursuits.  It’s being able to participate in the things that you enjoy.  They say that the good things in life are free, but you have to make those good things occur.  Family, friends, supportive people in your life, these will help to make you happy and happiness can come without financial burden.  It’s the gifts of sharing and caring that help to ease hunger, give shelter, clothing and supplies and make a happier world for those in need.

Happiness is for all of us.

Happy International Happiness Day

written by Dr. Louise E Hayes

March 19, 2025

 

 

Bunnies and Eggs
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Bunnies and Eggs

Good Day Brave Hearts

Happy Easter to all.

The Easter Bunny is hop, hop, hopping into our world again, to help us celebrate the Easter story, with a twist.  An animal twist that supports the rabbit as a part of the celebration of life.  The resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday and the traditional Easter Egg hunt.

Regardless of your faith, Easter is celebrated by most of us, in a manner of religion, or fun.  The furry animal, with eggs and candies kind of fun.  A bunny, or a rabbit, maybe a hare, of noteworthy cuteness, bringing Easter eggs in many colours and many candy forms.  Chocolate, for the chocoholics, who cherish the world of chocolate treats.  Chocolate bunnies and eggs, hollow or filled,  jelly beans and cream centred eggs, a dietary delight of candy.   Lovely candy, full of richness and sugar, the confectioners delight.  Easter is a booming business in the candy trade.

Of course, there’s also flowers, with the traditional flower of Easter being the  Calla Lily, which blooms at Easter time and gives us a  festive tradition to participate in, whether you believe in the Christian story of resurrection or not.

Spring is here, the wild crocuses are in bloom and the Easter bunny is hopping along, spreading Easter eggs in hiding places for us to find.  It’s a fun story, which capitalizes on an ancient story of death and resurrection.  The rise of Jesus of Nazareth from the tomb, which  coincides with the passing of winter into spring.  A symbolic passing from the dead of winter to the new life of spring, immortalized by the death of the Savior on the cross, to the revelation of a vacant tomb and new life.  The new life of rebirth, of being reborn, of the passing of death to life.  It’s a symbolic time, a holy time, a time to cherish the Lord and the representation that all life will live.

Easter Symbols and Traditions – Easter Bunny, Eggs & Lilies | HISTORY

Julius Caesar noticed that in old England, no one would eat hares.  Hares had been connected to the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the Holy family.  The prolific rabbit, sends a message of fertility to us, with large families.  So does the egg.  Painting eggs is part of the Easter past time and egg painting is a celebrated art in some countries. The tradition of painting eggs in bright colours, so that we can find them under pillows, in the yard, hiding in trees and in plants, is a joyous part of Easter celebrations, but it also sends a message.  Eggs are fertility  It’s spring and rebirth is all around us.

The fabulous Savior, who survives death and is resurrected into this world, only to ascend to Heaven, is a story of awesome wonder at the miraculous life of Jesus.  The miracle of death and resurrection, life and death, rebirth.   It is also a time of family holiday and a celebration of the impossible.  Rising from the dead, speaking to people, walking streets.  It’s a mystery still unsolved.  It’s a mystery of faith.

The easy way to resolve Easter, is to paint Easter eggs and adore the bunny, who comes hop, hop, hopping along.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

March 30, 2024

 

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A Brave and Perilous Journey

Hail Brave hearts

In the era of yesteryear,  the land was young, and people from Europe sought passage to this place, seeking a new freedom, a quest for new life, a new self fulfillment, a new community, a new start in the world.  This was Canada, when it was young, a place for settlers to, call their home.  Strong people, adventurous, industrious, hard working and courageous, they flocked to this land for their rights to a new life.  Free of the constraints of power in Europe, the new colonialists forged ahead, seeking refuge, land, a place to farm and a place to call home.  This is us, in Canada.  Young, welcoming, offering a life to those who were willing to make the journey and to work for a life  like no other.

The wild calls, with it’s howling voice, its watches with it’s thousand eyes, it hears with it’s sharp ears and vanishes into the bush, only to emerge at night and howl some more.

The crack of a branch in the forest.  Who’s out there?  Only a wild cat?  Only a bear?  Who lurks in the bushes and stalks us?  In the quiet of the forest, when the wind rushes through the trees, the clamour of restless birds, announce the presence of the stranger.  In the wild of the waterways, the rushing water tumbles over rapids and waterfalls.  Dangerous rivers, dangerous portages, dangerous stormy lakes, all lead to the wealth of a land of promise.  The new land of plenty, if you dare to seek it.  Follow the treasure map to the X that marks the place.  Here you will find what you seek, if you survive the perilous journey to reach it.

How long will this journey take depends on you.  It depends on your skills, your health, your aptitudes, fortitude and negotiation., or perhaps, stealth and quiet.  It’s a dangerous game, but for the many who sought this refuge in the wild, the high stakes must have been worth effort.  The right to own land, to have a freedom.

1670s in Canada – Wikipedia

The journey across the Atlantic Ocean is just the beginning.  A 5403 kilometer start to an uncertain finish in old Quebec City.  Such a long and tiresome journey for the the hopeful stalwarts of the day.   Alas, this is not the X on this map.  Old Quebec is not the treasure for this group of immigrants, longing for a fresh new start in a wild and uncompromising land.  This refuge in the storm is not for them.  This fabulous  colony, so fortuitous, the weary, grateful travellers can cast their eyes on the potential that awaits them.  A city!  It’s possible.  It’s possible to tame this land.  It’s possible to farm here, and to enjoy the benefits of a tenuous freedom.

There are freedoms from some things, but the land and it’s inhabitants are still in charge.  Push on, oh brave hearts, push on.  Seek your fortune.  Find the treasure.  It’s promised to you, if you survive.  So brave hearts, if you should choose to accept this challenge, your good fortune and perhaps fame awaits you.  Good luck.

written by Dr Louise Hayes

April 11, 2022

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Happy Birthday to Us

Good Day Brave hearts

A Happy Canada Day to you.

Today we celebrate the birthday of this great country. A village from the forest. A dream of national identity. A work of unity of life and lifestyle in a land so vast and diverse. The land, the people, the projects, all individually styled for an outcome of diversity and praises for all of it. The great land with its majestic mountains, it’s sweeping prairie, it’s thousands of lakes, it’s forests, it’s tundra, it’s landscapes so unique and awesome. The great land, filled with great people, great places, great adventure and great belonging.

Fill your cup, with the endless opportunity of Canada! The opportunity for exploration is immense, with so much enjoy. We are the second largest country in the world and have so much to see and to discover. The valuable history of sharing and caring for each other. The widespread plains of homesteaders striving to build a country from sea to shining sea. The great north, so wild and free.

This is our Canada. A vast and brilliant home to us. A place of nurturing our spirits, of learning, of wisdom. This is the country that we made ourselves, from our skills, our intelligence, our passions, and our sense of community. We built this. We chose this. We collectively decided that this is the Canada that we want, that we love and that is our home. We made this place special to us, ourselves.

This fabulous world of the wilderness and the great wild, is home for us. We save it because we adore it. It speaks to us, to adventure, to explore, to challenge ourselves to be smart, educated, strong and daring. This great land calls us to retain ancestral roots which tie us to a past time of athletic adventure, community and ingenuity. It calls us to the present, of eco tourism, the food supply, the great cities. It calls us to our future, to retain it all, to be proud, to learn from each other and to share our knowledge with each other. It calls us. Each and every Canadian, to do our duty of care for this great nation. This great country that we call our home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDluztBSaBc

It is with great pleasure that we celebrate this birthday. 133 years of a community of people spread out over a vast countryside of unique places to live in and to visit. The differences in cultures, in heritage, in ties that bind us. We are not all the same, but we are. We are all different, but we are one. We are all diverse, but we are the same. This is how we choose to be. Individual, healthy, strong, with a courage to be culturally diverse and still be united. To live together in multicultural unity. This is our goal and one of our freedoms. Respect for each other and for the intellect that brings us peace and opportunity under a flag that flies so freely.

Happy Birthday Canada. May our dreams remain alive. May our hopes be fulfilled. May our way of life survive us. May we be filled with the glory of this great nation. Happy Birthday, Canada. May you live forever!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

Canada Day, 2020

The Everlasting Day
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The Everlasting Day

Hail Almighty Ones

Dreams of this day, this long, everlasting day.  Dreams of adventure, of skills tested wisely, of companionship and social life, of friends and togetherness.  Plan for this day, it’s fleeting window of opportunity.  Plan for each moment, for this day, as all days, are special ones.

Rise early, the sun shines already, calling you to awake from slumber. Cast off your sleepy head and don your wakefulness, for the sun shines, the birds sing and your adventure is about to begin.  You’ll test your skills with the companionship of friends, in games of athletic competition.  You’ll read your novels, knit your sweaters, stroll through countysides, swim in pools.  You’ll choose your aptitude and share with those special people who’s company you enjoy.  This is your own, everlasting day.  A day that heals wounds, that relieves suffering, that smiles and hugs and keeps you warm.  This is the day to relax, to enjoy, to dwell longer, to live better, to laugh and to learn, to love and to chatter.  This is that special, endless day.  A day of exchange, to try recipes, to learn new skills together and to try one of your favourite things.  This is your planned adventure, to last the whole day long.  To sing and be happy, to love the life your given.  This day won’t really end, it just gets longer.  Longer into the evening, with food to share and stories to tell, that strengthen the bonds between us.   Take the time to plan the adventure of this day, to share stories and plan gatherings, sharing your dinner and safely, exchanging knowledge.   What you’ve learned, what you’ve seen, what you’ve accomplished with this day.

To stroll in the forest, climb a new peak, share your dinner together, wind up at someone’s place.  To get to know each other more thoroughly, to spend the time, to escape into togetherness, into freedom and relaxation.  These special days are forever, when time passes so slowly, when spirits soar and encouragement cheers you on.  These are friendship days of constant companionship, constant togetherness, constant affirmation of your life.  These special days are as often as possible, not holidays, but days of rest.

Fill your life with special days, to warm your heart, fill your world friendship and to live with joy.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 8, 2017

Multicultural You
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Multicultural You

Hail Bravehearts

A brave new day, a brilliant country, a national holiday, a celebration of pride, joy and togetherness.  This great nation, molded and blended, nurtured and cherished.  A great Canada, a fabulous notion, a clever and brilliant place.  Multicultural you, with freedoms and rights.  The freedom to live without violence, to live in neighbourly contact with people of different nationalities, the right to live without arms and to protect yourselves, keeping your community safe and secure..

The laws protect our culture but still frees us from oppression.  No tyrants or dictators, to enslave us.  The contract with the people is peace among us, no cultural quarrels or religious disputes.  An age old negotiation that protected these rights, have been handed down and protected, for hundreds of years.  Multicultural Canada, with its birth in French and English culture, both completely different, yet somehow it works.  Hammer out the contract, write the laws, guarantee the freedom.  The evolving wisdom of ages past, becomes the fulfilling society of our present.  Strong and united, the worlds peoples share this land.  From ancient aboriginal ways to the escaping refugee, the weave of a mosaic of multicultural heritage enhances our lives, gives us richness in people and culture and ingrains an intelligence of peace among us.  United in freedom, mutual caring, the sharing of this country is our shining past, our fabulous present and our brilliant future.

We are unique in our history.  A land of harsh and somewhat unconquerable climate, of difficult terrain and a short growing season.  A majestic land of wild forests and tumbling rivers, of curious peoples and language barrier.  Still, the nation was won through negotiation and peace, love and marriage, barter and exchange.  The cultures blend, learn and accept, we are all different, we are all one.  Our wise past is still our present, still our future, still our bright and shining star.  That star that guides us and beckons us to follow, into your unique and inspiring country.  Into your fellowship and merciful negotiation, into the nation of democratic law and democratic peace.

Hail, oh Canada, as the years roll by and the world changes, the battles die and the wars subside, into your dreams of international peace, where all peoples live under the shelter of laws of freedom.  Peaceful freedom, oh multicultural you.  Write your songs, sing your hearts out, brilliant praises to our national cause.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

July 8, 2016