Oh Canada

I spend a lot of time these days with newcomers to Canada. I work at a very multi-ethnic church where a huge percentage of our congregation was born outside of Canada. I also volunteer with Send Relief Hamilton, which does extensive work with refugee claimants. Each week, I help at the weekly ESL where people from around the world come to grow in their English proficiency.

Beyond just work, however, many of these newcomers have become friends. I have come to know their hearts and their stories. Many of their stories are quite horrifying, fleeing from cartels who kidnapped their children, or other places of extreme violence and persecution. And with those stories comes loss and trauma and grieving. If given the choice, I imagine most of them would prefer to be safe at home, in their home country and culture, with friends and families - if that were a possibility. But it is not a possibility. And so they are here.

As Canada Day approaches, I will look at it slightly differently, with a bit of their perspective. For many of my friends, it will come with a tinge of sadness and grieving for what has been ripped away from them or for the trauma they have experienced. But it will also come with tears of joy as they look out at their new home, for which they are genuinely grateful. A new home that has offered them a safe place to land, has welcomed them in and offers hope for the future. It is this perspective that I have tried to capture in the poem below:

Oh Canada

Oh Canada, and through fresh eyes

Though tears remain, they’re mostly dried

The shimmer adds a gilded glow

Around the maple leaf and so

A reverential air applies

The tears are tears of pain and loss

And trauma-oh the trauma, gloss

Not over as they rise to join

Oh Canada

But tears of joy are mingled found

And maple syrup runneth down

Anointing possibilities

Not perfect, no, but welcoming

Together on this day, we sing

Oh Canada