I think my wife was trying to give me a compliment last week when she insisted... “If things get better with age, then you must be approaching magnificence?” Wouldn’t it be boring if every day was perfect, if we didn’t have a few problems and aches and pains once in a while, if our kids quit coming around looking for advice and mom’s cooking and if there still wasn’t something quite sweet and adventurous that we couldn’t look forward to in our lives??
While I will never be a member of the rich and famous set, I try to look forward to each and every day, and when I get a little grumpy or down I just take another deep breath of fresh air and count my blessings. I also have this tattered list of some of the lessons that life has taught me along the way, and I am sure that all of you have experienced the same in our daily quest for happiness and survival?
*Life isn’t always fair, but it’s still good, and the best is yet to come!
*Life is far too short to waste time hating some one.
*Always try to save for your retirement, starting with your first pay cheque.
*Don’t ever compare your life to others, as we have no idea what their journey is all about.
*Try to make every day, every moment, a special occasion, and try to share the best times with others.
*Growing old certainly beats the alternative of dying young.
*All that truly matters in the end is that you loved, and were loved in return.
*God loves us for because of who God is, not because of anything we did or didn’t do.
*It’s never too late to believe in miracles, or to try and achieve one or two.
*Life is far too short for pity parties, so let’s get busy living.
*If we threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d soon grab ours back.
*Try to forgive everyone about everything.
*It’s okay to let your children see you cry because crying with someone else offers more healing than crying alone.
*Get rid of everything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
*A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. We must never forget old friends, but we should always strive to seek out new ones.
*No matter how we feel we must get up, dress up and wear whatever colour you wish. If it gets too stuffy or stressful get outside and relax amongst nature.
*Come out of your comfort zone and let loose once in a while...within reason.
*Life isn’t always tied with a bow, but it is still the best gift that we will ever receive.
So here are the answers to the Canadian quiz questions
*Canada’s spoof political party is the Rhinoceros Party.
*A Calgary red-eye is a drink of beer and tomato juice.
*All Canadian words for school supplies are unique.... pencil crayon, Duo-Tang, scribbler, and on and on.
*Blackfly is not a level of amateur sports in Canada.
*Moose Pasture is the slang name for a piece of land promoted as having mining potential, but is really quite worthless.
*Molson muscle is the slang name for a beer belly.
*Revenge of the cradle is an extremely high birth rate amongst French Canadians in the 19th century.
*Bangbelly is the Newfoundland cake made from rice, pork, and molasses.
*There are ten provinces and three territories in Canada.
*Nunavut was the most recent territory to come aboard.
*You are a ‘Come-from-away’ if you visit Atlantic Canada but weren’t born there.
*A New Brunswicker is known as a ‘Herring Choker!’
*Kim Campbell was Canada’s only lady Prime Minister so far.
*The highest waterfall in Canada is at Delta Falls, B.C.; 440 metres high.
*Lloydminister is the Canadian city divided between the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
*Churchill, Manitoba is Canada’s only seaport on the Hudson Bay.
*Canada finally adopted the Maple Leaf for their Canadian Flag in 1965 after decades of heated debate
*Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway is at Victoria, B.C. in the west and St. John’s Newfoundland in the east.
*The greatest one-day snowfall in Canada (145 centimetres) occurred at Tahtsa Lake, B.C. on Feb. 11, 1999.
*Petrolia, Ontario was the founder of Canada’s Oil Industry at Imperial Oil’s Sarnia refinery commissioned in 1897).
*The big six Canadian teams in the National Hockey League are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa. Montreal Canadians have won 24 Stanley Cups since 1915.
Hope you had a little fun with the quiz, and while we are all looking forward to the playoffs, there are lots of great things happening outside as well. Have a great week, all of you!