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Calling All Adventurer Friends
The great outdoors in Mille-Isles, Quebec is… following a dirt road twisting upward into fresh mountain air, quiet and sweet with pine; witnessing a star-spangled night sky so reflected in the still lake that you can’t sort out the fireflies from the cosmic twinkles; losing yourself in leafy woods all busy with birds; breathing in deep the scents of dirt and mushrooms and wood returning to the earth, comforting the ancient primal core of your innermost self; hearing a lone loon call early in the morning, and at twilight, the sounds of bullfrogs and the snap and crackle of a campfire. That it’s far away from anywhere else makes it hard to get to, which is the whole point. The earthy abode that awaits you can be viewed at Cottage in Quebec on this site.
For Wearers of Baby Barf
When Canada Reminds US How It's Done...
1-minute read
I love lingering over a Sunday paper, but the newspapers here in Canada are full weekend editions printed on Saturdays. Luckily, there's enough content to have two Sunday morning-type sit-downs so I save half the paper for Sunday.
This morning I was inspired by one of the things the Globe & Mail does best: in-depth profiles of Canadian personalities. Last summer, I was inspired by that of Canadian Supreme Court justice and Polish immigrant Rosalie Abella. In it, a tale was recounted of Eleanor Roosevelt visiting the refugee camp where Rosalie was born, where Rosalie's father gave the official welcome, saying, “We are not in a position of showing you many assets. The best we are able to produce are these few children. They alone are our fortune and our sole hope for the future.”
This morning was another incredibly moving profile, this one of Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s new immigration minister, who also emigrated to Canada at a young age, and who also overcame the challenges of being from a culture and religion different from (and, as a result, sometimes distrusted by) many his new community. Strange as it sounds, and as G&M columnist Marsha Lederman points out, the formation that comes from overcoming these challenges is a great asset to a country. In fact, it’s what has made America what it is today. I hope we Americans do not lose sight of that. As Hussen contends, “History will judge that countries that are open will be more successful at the end of the day.”