Happy Canada Day!

"Where we love is home: home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Homesick in Heaven

Today is Canada Day, a day when my heart goes back to the place that I still [after all these years] call 'home'. I grew up in a small-ish city [Lethbridge] in Alberta, Canada, surrounded by a good-sized extended family and lots of church and family support. It was the perfect place to grow up: a place where we could go out on our own on Hallowe'en with our empty pillowcases and return hours later, safe and sound. I have memories of riding the city bus downtown to the library and feeling so grown-up and independent that I could do that all on my own.

There wasn't a McDonalds, a Burger King, or a Wal-Mart there when I was growing up [there are now] but I have clear memories of Burger Baron, A &W, Woolworth's, Eatons and Kresge's. A lot has changed about Lethbridge as time has passed, but every time I go back there, I feel the same pull. It's home. No matter how much has changed, how much the city has grown [and it has more than doubled in size since my growing-up days] and how many more things are different there now, it will always be home.

There is a part of me that will always be Canadian, despite the fact that I am now legally a citizen of the United States. My heart always lifts at the sight of a maple leaf, at the sound of 'O Canada', or when I hear someone say [in the uniquely Canadian accent that now I recognize, and didn't when I had it] 'out' or 'about'.

So happy Canada Day! If you're not Canadian, it won't mean much to you, but take a minute today and let your own heart be drawn back to where you came from. Think about your home, your heritage and your family traditions and go back in your thoughts and remember and be grateful.

Sometimes we just need to go home to remember who we really are.