I am reminded

As I awake each day, I am reminded that we are in this world to do our best; to strive to learn and to respect all life. As a child I did not like to eat meat because the cows on my great uncle's farm were living beings as were the pigs and the chickens too. It was a movie that we went to when I was about eight or nine that made me understand a little better. The First Nations peoples respect the world around them - all of it. It is part of their culture and that movie (can not remember the name) talked about that briefly. I love documentaries and perhaps it had that background; no ideas now but it was something I went to with my grandmother as it bothered her that I did not like to eat meat. It is all about respect; that is how life needs to flow. 

The poem is forever in my mind:

East is east, and west is west 

And never the twain shall meet

'til Earth and Sky stand presently

at God\s great judgement seat.

Where there is neither East nor West

Border nor Breed nor Birth

When two strong men stand face to face 

Though they come from the ends of the Earth. 

But we have in this last period of time since the Second World War come together in the United Nations where we are all people of one world (and amazingly I can tell if a person is Japanese, Chinese or Korean). That is because my children always had friends from all different ethnicities; there are unique markers for each of these three ethnicities and for the many more around the world. Come to Canada and see that people from all over the world have come together to help to create this wonderful country thousands of years ago by the First Nations and  now moving forward with people from all over the world. We need to work together; respect each other and move forward as one to protect the planet and provide a living for all of her people.

Canada has over 40 million people now and as the world changes I expect our population will continue to grow and the powerhouse that this second largest country in the world has will be harnessed and utilized. I hope that we continue being a country that respects the people who live here and in the rest of the world. Although I find the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to be a limiting document it is also a document that supports people especially people who are because of various reasons seen as different. Frank Stronach mentions a Charter of Economic Rights and I did read through his idea. It means making an investment in our country by individuals in a position to do so and then returning some of the profits to their deserving employees so that they too prosper and you level the playing field somewhat by spreading the riches of production. A more equalitarian society is very futuristic but also an ancient society because humans were more geared towards that notion in years gone by (but they did tend to be related by blood bonds). Hard work and diligence should be rewarded and Canada will need a lot of that in the years to come to reach the potential of which Homo sapiens is capable. Money is both a curse and a blessing; some use it to benefit the world others are just interested in what it can do for them personally and how much they can acquire without sharing what they have. Time will tell how Canada goes forward and I will pay attention to the leader of the Conservative Party as I do to the leaders of all parties but I am forever freed of being a Conservative supporter just because it is the Conservative Party. As always, I look for efficiency in government and I do see that often enough but there does need to be more; our military needs to be properly supplied to care for this country and the three oceans that surround it. We need to be there for our NATO and NORAD partners.

Although I thought about the Siderfin book yesterday I did not do very much on it. I decided to work on my Latin a little longer than usual as it was test time and I was rewarded by the effort. When I transcribed the Probate of the latest will I transcribed I found it much easier moving through the text simply because I recognized the endings so it is time to learn declensions as I do have a lot of Latin text that I could work on but I tended to get bogged down in it because I did not know enough; it could be at this ancient age of 77 that I will actually learn Latin and use it!

Another day in the heat wave but it is July and to be expected. We did have rain yesterday; not a lot but enough to keep the ground wetted down., The sun may ripen those raspberries; I know the birds are waiting for them. They have pretty much eaten up the red currants and they are checking out the gooseberries and raspberries which are next. I am allergic to strawberries so do not grow those. The elderberries flowers are growing bigger and soon they too will be an attraction for the bird life. I suppose we should harness some of that goodness but it is fun watching the birds eat them to be honest.

Must weed again today as that is really needed. Research does have to take a bit of a back seat in the summer. I am enjoying the Siderfin book and it grows longer and longer. Once I have all the generations in place then I can go back and decide what needs to be in the text and what could be in appendices just to reduce the text in the main book and use hypertext linking to go back and forth between the appendices. Book writing is fascinating for sure but this is a limited production of interest only to family members and repositories. Having helped Edward publish his Kipp family book I do not want to be involved with selling paper copies; everything will be electronic which is possible these days as so many people have computers these days even those of us in our 70s, 80s and 90s and more. The repositories like electronic although I will perhaps print a couple of copies for my close family members if they want one.  But I am into electronic these days. My library is so very small considering we had so many books when Edward was alive but they were all donated to the genealogical society that he asked us to facilitate before he died. I do have a lot of electronic books though which can be readily found online and I am finding that I download fewer and fewer of them because it is easier just to find them online.

I asked the Archival Library at my Anglican Church if they would like my books and fiche and at the time they said yes so I will do the same as the fiche in particular are the records of the various Churches in England that my families attended (if they still want all that material). 

On to the day; it is moving quickly as usual. Solitaire games and then breakfast. One set of jumping jacks done and the second to do before breakfast. Exercise routine is different in the summer with gardening, kayaking and walking outside. As the birds are scurrying about teaching their young to eat and to fly though one can sense their hurry and that Fall is in the wings - Summer lasts but a short time really.  Then we are into the good times - the research times and I look forward to that. I want to finish the Siderfin book before my cataract surgery and then a big break during which time I shall enjoy my CDs - pretty much Gregorian Chants and the like. Perhaps I will knit some gifts for Christmas; just thought of that. I have a huge bucket of wool and that might be fun not sure if that is practical though; time will tell. But there is always the television with You-Tube and NetFlix and an amazing number of documentaries particularly on You-Tube. I have no idea what I can do whilst I recover from cataract surgery although I am sure my older sister will fill me in on that if I ask her.