"Is the life I'm living the life that wants to live in me?"

-- Parker Palmer

Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. -- Albert Schweitzer

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives. -- Tracy Chapman

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. 

~e.e. cummings

"The scariest moment is always just before you start."

Stephen King

"If I had one gift that I could give you, my friend, it would be the ability to see yourself as others see you, because only then would you know how extremely special you are." 


~ B.A.Billingsly ~

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature"

~ Gerard De Nerval

‎"Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind." 
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."
~ Oprah Winfrey

Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strength.

Mary Engelbreit

Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I really need it. 

~ Swedish Proverb

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.  Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost."

~ Dalai Lama

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~ William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

"It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others."

—Marianne Williamson (Our Greatest Fear from the book "Return To Love", 1992)

“A human being is part of a whole called by us ‘the universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
Kahlil Gibran

"To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy, a whole heart, and a free mind."

(Pearl S. Buck)

"The air smelled of sun-warmed bark and apple buds raring to blossom and get on with life.  Overhead, a million baby leaves danced in the breeze."

Kathy Reichs

"It is sometimes a mistake to make the climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you climb, you can either succeed or fall. But there is a third option: Sometimes when you fall, you find out you can fly."
 –NG
(via Benjamin LaBrot, founder of Floating Doctors)

"The triumph of anything is a matter of organization."
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 

"You can fool just about anyone, but the easiest one to fool is yourself."  (Richard Feynman)

"Quiet people have the loudest minds."
~Stephen Hawking

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself"

~ Alan Alda

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is 
waiting for us."

--Joseph Campbell

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

-- George Eliot (1819-1880)

“Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.” 
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"A person is only as big as the dream they dare to live."

-- Unknown

"That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong."

 

~William J. H. Boetcker

'I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.'
~ Vincent Van Gogh

"I like to live like a poor man with lots of money." ~ Picasso

"When you drink the water, you think of where the water comes from."
~ Chinese saying

"All know the way, but few actually walk it."
~ Bodhidharma

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."
~ Jack Layton

"Knowledge is not enough, we must apply."
~ Goethe

"I cannot teach anybody anything.  I can only make them think."
~ Socrates

'They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets. They don't exist below the waist.'

Gary Knell,Sesame Workshop President and CEO regarding Ernie and Bert

"Prizes are nice, but the real competition is with your performance yesterday."
Irwin Greenberg

The greatest gift you will ever receive is the gift of loving and
believing in yourself. Guard this gift with your life. It is the only
thing that will ever truly be yours.

-- Tiffany Loren Rowe

A childlike man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on
the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of
continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves
in the cocoon of middle aged habit and convention.

-- Aldous Huxley

You cannot add to the peace and good will of the world if you fail to
create an atmosphere of harmony and love right where you live and
work.

-- Thomas Dreier

From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the
individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It
is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to
resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side
street.

-- Mark Helprin

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself.

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

"The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your hear -- this you will build your life by, and this you will become."
~ James Lane Allen (1849-1925)

"A wish has been defined as a 'goal with no energy behind it.' Hope is not a strategy."
~ Brian Tracy

I don't like work... but I like what is in work -- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- which no other man can ever know.

-- Joseph Conrad

Art establishes and makes tangible a time, a place, a thought, an idea.
Art, properly made, enhances and enriches the lives of others.
Art gives an opportunity to endow new life and new meaning into the ordinary.
Art gives an opportunity to design your own world, and, as in your children, create a significant immortality.
Art is hard-earned work that is its own reward and has a degree of permanence.
Art, because it's so easy to do, and yet so difficult to do well, encourages humility in the human soul.
Art is an apprenticeship that can be stretched into a lifelong education.
Art thrives on democratic ideals, freedom of expression and rugged individualism.
Art permits you to step out of the labyrinth and into a quiet corner of your own private joy.


~ Robert Genn, Canadian painter and author

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

-William James

"In real life, there is real heroism, but its not about saving babies from burning buildings. Its about making an effort, day after day, to be kind to some old people, be patient with some young people, be polite to those who you could get away being rude to. Real life heroism is a marathon, not a sprint."


~ John F. Groom

Is great art out of reach? You can find an emerging artist, a painting, or vase, in your city, for an amount you can afford. The great names are out of your reach. But beauty, without the brand, is not. And the search for beauty will ennoble you.

~ John F. Groom

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honour; duty; mercy; hope.”

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"He plays his tune.Is it beautiful? Are you paying attention? Or do you just want to know if he is famous? Does his fame, or lack thereof, affect the beauty of the song? Can you hear the music, or taste the wine, without knowing the brand?"

~ John F. Groom

“As the body needs physical exercise in order to remain in fit condition, man’s spirit also requires the spiritual exercise derived when he confronts his problems and combats life’s vicissitudes. ”

- William Sahakian and Mabel Lewis Sahakian, describing the philosophy of Epictetus

“I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”

- Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977)

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

"Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud." 

~Maya Angelou

"Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our worthiest desires."

-- Randolph S. Bourne (1886-1918)

"An expert is an ordinary fellow from another town."


 (Mark Twain) 

"Life is a song... sing it. Life is a game... play it. Life is a challenge... meet it. Life is a dream... realize it. Life is a sacrifice... offer it. Life is love.... enjoy it." 


Sai Baba

“True friends are those who lift you up when your heart's wings forget how to fly.” 
- Grace Pulpit

"Something we were withholding made us weak until we found it was ourselves."

Robert Frost

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

-Edith Lovejoy Pierce

"Every minute past is a minute gone."

~  Henry Robert Tindale Haws

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”


 - Lao Tzu

"When we dismiss calling someone a 'fag' as kids being kids, what message are we sending the target and those who are saying it?"

- Brian Juchems

"If you have knowledge, let others light  their candles with it." 


- Margaret Fuller

"It is with music we pray twice" 


St. Augustine 

"I want to leave something behind when I go; some small legacy of truth, some word that will shine in a dark place."
                         —Nellie McClung

"Not a day passes over this earth but men and women of note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows."

-- Charles Reed

"The rich and the idlers seek the new, the extraordinary, the extravagant and the scandalous. I have contented these people with all the many bizarre things that come into my head. The less they understand, the more they admire it. By amusing myself with all these games, all this nonsense, all these picture puzzles, I became famous. I am only a public entertainer who has understood his time." 


(Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973)

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

Hans Christian Andersen

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." 


(Oscar Wilde) 

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength
from distress, and grow brave by reflection."

-- Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

"The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly." 


— Friedrich Nietzsche

It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.

-- Herodotus (485 - 425BC) 

"Those who follow are always behind." 


~ A Y Jackson

"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself." 


- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not
on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

-- Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

"Life is a gift. It offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back." 


- Anthony Robbins

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." 

-Seneca

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." 


Henry Ford

"He who finds diamonds must grapple in mud and mire because diamonds
are not found in polished stones.  They are made."

-- Henry B. Wilson

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. "
 
~ Nelson Mandela

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love yourself—accept yourself—forgive yourself—and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.” 

-Leo F. Buscaglia

‎"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." 

- Dalai Lama

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." 


- Nelson Mandela

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

-Albert Camus

"Noone is as blind as the one who does not want to see."

- Dr. KJS (Sunny) Anand, paediatrician and researcher

"I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched... Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river."

—Norman MacLean, A River Runs Through It

"Democracy is not a spectator sport. And what upsets me is we've lulled ourselves in America into a state of sedentary agitation, where everybody can sit on their couch and get upset about what's going on but not get off their backsides and realize that they are responsible for the change that they need to make.

We who drink deeply from wells that we did not dig, we who eat lavishly from banquet tables set up for us by the sacrifices and struggles of our ancestors, are we just going to luxuriate in all that's America?  Or are we going to realize that this nation has not finished itself yet, and we must return the blessings of our ancestors by showing the same sacrifice and commitment?"

~ Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, USA

‎"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." 

-Leo Buscaglia

‎"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.""


- Mary Anne Radmacher

They said,"You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."
The man replied,"Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.

- Wallace Stevens

‎"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." 

- Saint Basil (330 - 379 AD)

"Live your life as if there are no miracles and everything is a miracle." 

- Albert Einstein

"Man is a creature who makes pictures of himself, and then comes to resemble the picture."

Iris Murdoch (as quoted by Simon Leys in NYRB)

 ‎"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." 


Saint Augustine

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly"


- Bobby Kennedy

“Today, like every day, we wake up empty. There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

Rumi

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

-Plato

"I never thought my dreams could come true until I tried as hard as I could from my the crown of my head to the SOLES of my feet. So stop complaining and keep trying harder."

- Leo Johnson 2010

Salutation To The Dawn

Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course

Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:

The bliss of growth,

The glory of action,

The splendor of achievement,

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is just a vision,

And today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!

Such is the salutation to the dawn.

~ Kalidasa

‎"To love chocolate is human, to choose Fair Trade is Divine." 

~ Kojo Aduhene-Tano, Cocoa Farmer, Kuapa Kokoo Fair Trade Cooperative, Ghana

"An artist is no bigger than the size of his mind.." 


Jack Shadbolt, 1909-1998

"We don't accomplish anything in this world alone...Whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something." 


- Sandra Day O'Connor

"He who has never seen himself surrounded on all sides by the sea can never possess an idea of the world, and of his relation to it." 


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."


~ Mark Twain

"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

~ Mark Twain

Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools. He uses them only when he has no choice. 


Lao Tzu

"I wish America had more engineers than lawyers" 


 Barrack Obama

‎"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." 

--Albert Pike

‎"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." 

~ Joseph Campbell

"Nature is the true revelation of the Deity to man. The nearest green field is the inspired page from which you may read all that it is needful for you to know.” 

- Arthur Conan Doyle Sr.

"Fear came knocking on the door. Faith answered; no one was there."

"Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation." 

 Thomas Keating

“The world is my country, all mankind are my bethren, and to do good is my religion.”
_  Thomas Paine

The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does the reverse.     

-- Confucius (551-479 BC) 

“You can gain more friends by being yourself than you can by putting up a front. You can gain more friends by building people up than you can by tearing them down. And you can gain more friends by taking a few minutes from each day to do something kind for someone, whether it be a friend or a complete stranger. What a difference one person can make!”

 -Sasha Azevedo

"If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed."

-- David Viscott

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

-- Lao Tzu

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

"Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with."

- Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

- Robert Frost

"The irony of the Information Age is that it has given new respectability to uninformed opinion."

~ Veteran reporter John Lawton, speaking to the American Association of Broadcast Journalists in 1995

"You teach best what you most need to learn." 


Richard Bach

"Teaching is a difficult profession. Artful teaching has a short shelf life that is not always respected by unions or the granters of tenure. Former libertine artists can be persuaded, as teachers, to cling for dear life to security. I recommend teaching contracts of no more than five years. Much less if the flame is burning low. The widespread practice of impassive teaching quells student curiosity and hatches dullards. Teachers need to be learners."


Robert Genn

"Genuine security arises from actual, first-hand knowledge that one is both capable and worthy of achieving happiness (through conscious, responsible action) and, once having attained it, that he deserves it."

-- Michael J. Hurd

"One must work and dare if one really wants to live." 
~ Vincent Van Gogh

"Virtue means doing the right thing, in relation to the right person, at the right time, to the right extent, in the right manner, and for the right purpose.  Thus, to give money away is quite a simple task, but for the act to be virtuous, the donor must give to the right person, for the right purpose, in the right amount, in the right manner, and at the right time.

-- Aristotle

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving."
-Albert Einstein

"Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"

-Martin Luther King Jr.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

-Theodore Roosevelt

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."


-Mother Teresa

"To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant, because you're always going agains the conformity of the group. 

Heroes are ordinary people whose social action is Extra-Ordinary who ACT when others are passive, who give up EGO-centrism for SOCIO-centrism."

~ Philip Zimbardo

"Some people say that dreaming gets you nowhere in life. But I say you
can't get anywhere in life without dreaming."

-- Rose Zadra

“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service” 


~ Charles Darwin

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."


~Robert Frost

"For those who can cry, I say, be proud. Humanity is in your tears."
~ Robert Genn, Canadian Painter

"It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain himself. "

~ Epicurus

“Don’t just survive what’s coming at you.  Shape it.”
Gen. Romeo Dallaire

"The finest people marry the two sexes in their own person."


~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted - a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."

- Rabbi Harold Kushner"

"Gratitude is the sign of noble souls" 


- Aesop

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." 


- Cicero

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" 


- Henry Ward Beecher

"When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude." 
- Elie Wiesel

"In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy."
- Albert Clarke

"The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart."

-- Mencius (371-291 B.C.)

"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." 
- Mark Van Doren

"The supreme art of the teacher is to awaken joy."


- Albert Einstein

"Nothing is more endangered in the modern world than the powerful combination of hard work toward meaningful goals joined with an exuberant embrace of the present moment."

-- Tom Morris

"There is no substitute for attentive repetition."
Daniel Coyle

"Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice."

-- John McCain

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals."

-- Samuel Ullman

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
-- Carrie Fisher

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect, has intended us to forego their use."

Galileo

"I have always had a curious nature; I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught."


~ Winston Churchill

"If success is not on your own terms - if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your own heart - it is no success at all."

-- Anna Quindlen

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." 
~ Seneca

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"It's not shameful not to know, but it's shameful not to ask."

~Azerbaijani Proverb

"With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come."
-- Shakespeare  

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
 - Dalal Lama    

"The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don't have any."
- Alice Walker      

"It is no measure of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
 - Krishnamurti 

"Three things cannot be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
- Buddha

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- Voltaire

"Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens."
- Jimi Hendrix    

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists."
- Abbie Hoffman      

"The Devil can site scripture for his own purposes."
~William Shakespeare

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get the people to stop reading."

~ Ray Bradbury

We Are More
by Shane Koyczan
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we've got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world's anthem has been
"been there done that"
and maybe that's where we used to be at
it's true
we've done and we've been
we've seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don't forget to mention that we have set sparks

we are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away
we do more than sit around and say "eh?"
and yes

we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you're welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change
with influences that range from a to zed
and yes we say zed instead of zee
we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy
we dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow
we do more than grow wheat and brew beer
we are vineyards of good year after good year
we reforest what we clear
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing now that so many of us
have grown past what used to be
we can stand here today

filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like "someday"

someday we'll be great
someday we'll be this
or that
someday we'll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say someday

we will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks
more than backpacks and hiking trails
we are hammers and nails building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across
we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss
we are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others
we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers
uncles and nephews aunts and nieces
we are cousins
we are found missing puzzle pieces
we are families with room at the table for newcomers
we are more than summers and winters
more than on and off seasons
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or do
we live to get past what we go through

and learn who we are
we are students
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why
we don't have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more
we don't all know what it is in life we're looking for
so keep exploring
go far and wide
or go inside but go deep
go deep
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you've been through hell and high water
and you went deep
keep exploring
because we are more
than a laundry list of things to do and places to see
we are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate
we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can't wait
we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes
a country that is all the ways you choose to live
a land that can give you variety
because we are choices
we are millions upon millions of voices shouting
"keep exploring... we are more"
we are the surprise the world has in store for you
it's true

Canada is the "what" in "what's new?"
so don't say "been there done that"
unless you've sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun
don't say you've been there done that
unless you've been here doing it
let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old same old
let us be the story told to your friends
and when that story ends
leave chapters for the next time you'll come back
next time pack for all the things
you didn't pack for the first time
but don't let your luggage define your travels
each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry
we are the true north
strong and free
and what's more
is that we didn't just say it
we made it be.
-Shane Koyczan