2025 A to Z Challenge Blog For the letter C

April 3, 2025. Good morning! This is the most recent selfie I have of myself. The hair gets whiter every day. In the background, you’ll see an example of my son’s art. It’s titled Mother and Child, and he gave it to me on Mother’s Day about fifteen years ago. He only does pen and ink, but some of his pieces are truly remarkable.

You may also notice the decorative plate on top of the dresser. My daughter-in-law is Norwegian. WE’ve visited that country twice. I love it there. More about that in later posts. The plate depicts the Viking Snow queen, possibly the one Disney used for Elsa when they decided to make Frozen.

My office is painted mauve. It’s a soothing color and one that helps me stay focused. It’s also where I do all of my writing each day. As a rule, after I get up and make the bed, I grab coffee and settle in here. I check my email, my facebook. my website, my blog, and peruse the headlines, although these days they are more than a little depressing. Afterwards, I shower and get cleaned up for the day. Then, with more coffee at hand, I settle down to my day’s writing. At the moment, I’m working on three books at once: the first is a low fantasy/paranormal The Homecoming, the second book in the Listen to the Stones Saga, the next is a romance suspense called And Justice for All, and the third is a romantic comedy, From Paris With Love, but more about that in a later post. Writing three books at once can be challenging, but sometimes, I need a change of pace. For today, I’ll be working on the rom-com. I hope your day is a good one.

Today’s letter is C. It makes sense that I should use this letter to talk about my country. If you are Canadian or a citizen of the US, you have probably heard all the senseless rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state.

Doesn’t it make sense to ask those of us who make Canada home how we feel about that? Don’t get me wrong. The United States has many redeeming features and I have many friends who live there, but it is not my home.

If you look at this map, I live just a little south of that star. I love my country and everything it stands for. My paternal ancestors came here from France in the seventeenth century, my maternal ones from Brittany in the early eighteenth. So, I’ve got deep roots here. I speak English and French, and I’m proud of every aspect of my heritage. I’ve visited each province, even stuck a foot into the Yukon Territory. I have friends living everywhere from Vancouver Island, BC, to Prince Edward Island. This is my land, my home, and I have no desire to change that. My hip surgery won’t require me to mortgage my house to pay for it, thanks to our national health insurance. I got to choose my surgeon as well, another bonus.

Sure, we aren’t perfect. Our ancestors didn’t understand that the indiginous people who lived here and still do have the right to live according to their culture. We’ve apologized for that and are trying to make things better. We accept immingrants for who and what they are and do our best to accept and understand that their culture can enrich this mosaic we call home if we allow it to do so.

We have four seasons–spring, summer, fall, and winter. Everyone has his or her favorites. but I love snow at Christmas, although I’m pretty much done with it afterwards. Bottom line, I’m Canadian and i want to say that way.

This is my home, my Canada. It’s not for sale at any price.

Come back tomorrow to see what I have to say about the letter D. Check out other posts here: MASTER LIST https://tinyurl.com/tauke86z