Happy Birthday Canada, 142 years young

Today we spent celebrating Canada's Birthday, this morning by making some new Canadians, and this afternoon with our neighbourhood sharing food, spirits and stories. Throughout the day we encountered "Canadians" of several different cultures, all sharing one country.

In our family, Tony is a British-Belgian who speaks British, Mandarin, Flemish and numerous bits of other languages, Lil is from a Cantonese area in China but speaks French, English and a little Mandarin, and I am an French-Irish mutt who butchers English, speaks dog, and a few swear words in various languages. Yet we have that common denominator. We are Canadians.

What struck me the most when we visited China was the consistency of heritage within the Chinese culture...almost everyone had beautiful Asian features, had been born and raised in China as had their family for generations. We did not encounter any Irish-Chinese or Italian-Chinese although I did meet one blond baby in Beijing and was quite startled thinking he must be albino...but he was just visiting from Sweden.

Despite our blended heritage and bad weather, Canada remains a harmonious country, hooked on hockey, Tim Horton's, snow blowers and universal health care. I feel so privileged to be part of this great melting pot. Happy Birthday Motherland. Keep the Peace.