Happy Canada Day Wakefield!

I sometimes think that God or some relative version of this or my extraordinary fantasy illusion driven mind, is playing with me. This Canada day, here in Wakefield, the theme was “Tiguido” or “come out and play”, and the creator’s creative juices were playing big time with me.

On a last minute decision, I decided that Phil Cohen is absolutely right, and it was time for me to be in the parade instead of just watching it go by. I was determined to make this my best Canada Day ever. So I volunteered the day before and on a picture perfect hot afternoon, went over to our community centre to join a surprising large number of volunteers to do whatever needed to be done to make this event a memorable occasion. I ended up making balloons, hundreds if not thousands of em, and tying them to strings and attaching them to every post around the parade route through our wonderful village. I ended up doing this with Mel, who like me, had recently seen the light, and has decided to leave the boozing and smoking behind for a life of more here and now clean living. We went through the village and had a ball with others laying out tiny Canada flags, posting bouquets of balloons all over the place. Five hours passed before I ended the stint as it started, with a jump in the cool river off my dock.

Next day I decided to be in the parade and hunted down my red shirt, my red tambourine and completed it with a small Canada flag hooked to the end of my fishing rod (I was telling people I caught the flag that morning in the Gatineau river off my deck). Off to Vorlage I went, everything felt perfect when I got there and I knew this had been the right decision. I gravitated to Pirreotte’s amazing drummers huddled in a decorated wagon with Mailin pulling them with a red car. The parade was a hoot for me, shaking my tambourine as I danced along side the wagon of drummers, matching my rhythm with the drumming. The crowd and sea of red and white alongside the festive balloons we set up the night before, was intoxicating as the sky rumbled and threatened to rain on our parade, but it didn’t yield more than a few tantalizing drops for this warm up event. The crowds were incredible, I saw Wayne and Sue on George’s perch and pointed my tambourine at them with a big smile to let them know I had found my place for now in this parade of life. The drummers were not always playing in the key of tambourine, but I put on the best show I could.

The festivities began with children singing on Jamie Robertson’s improvised army tent stage that volunteers had lovingly put together until the rumbling sky saturated with energy and lightening, exploded with perfect timing into a torrential downpour which felt like the stuff of legendary happenings akin to Woodstock. Of course, I’m inspired by Phil Cohen who by now has a front seat to Armageddon, just like his poem, taking credit for this magnificent occasion under nature’s wonder. I decide to join the kids and the IGA mascot “Tiga” to get out there and “play” in the downpour in my bare feet. Along the way, I joined a few kids to jump in huge gathering puddles, only to hear one of them say that this is the best Canada day ever, and they wished it would rain like this every year! I couldn’t agree more. Soaked and having way too much fun for an older man, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out again with perfect timing to let the festivities continue without a hitch.

Finally warmed and dried up, I decided to head home for a siesta by walking back to Phil’s house via the nature trail behind the centre. As I watched the 5 partridges pop out of an old tree by the path, I could hear children on stage singing a beautiful song that made them sound like angels. The words touched and soothed me deeply as they seemed to be speaking directly to me, “you thought you were all alone, don’t you cry to your mother,  everything is going to be alright”. Yes, life can be beautiful and mysterious.

I got home and had a swim and cozied up on dozed off with my cat on the couch in my gazebo, watching the boats and puffy grey and white clouds gather until another spectacular storm erupted like a lullaby for me. My new neighbor Roberta comes over to ask if I want to go back to the festivities with her and friends for part two of the games. It’s a few hours later and now the music is in full swing and dinner being served up. I splurge with my friends to treat myself with a cold beer that tastes like the nectar of the Gods for me in its rarity and perfect timing. I’m sitting by a picnic table enjoying the presence of good friends and great music and I look over to see a man that looks like my now rather famous friend, Dr. James Orbinski from Trent University. I go to mention this to Roberta, who also knows James from Trent university as well, and we both said at the same time that it looks like him. I said there’s no way he could be here and it must be a look a like. She goes over later to talk with him and comes up to me later to confirm that it was indeed him. Me feeling a bit daunted and shy after all these years, and now he’s like a celebrity with his work with MSF and his rather significant achievement of winning the Nobel peace prize.

I wait for my moment and it finally comes, so I walk up to him, look him straight in the eyes with a smile and shake his hand. He recognizes me immediately and we hug each other like old friends should after 30 years not seeing or hearing from each other. We end up hanging out for the rest of the evening and talking about everything old and new, I meet his wife, his buddy Ian Small who he is visiting here,  and his kids and we more than pick up again as good friends should in such a perfect setting. I still can hardly believe how surreal this all is but I’m not too surprised because I know that synchronicity is heavy in the air and the Gods are simply playing with us. All the while the amazing music and good vibes continues to overflow the moment. James and I and his musical prodigy son are watching the last band in awe, the Juno winning local band Esmerine that is playing meditative, drone music to appropriately set the mood.In short, the day could not have been better.

Next morning I decide to honor my volunteer commitment and return to the community center to work with another friend and aid worker named Rink who by no coincidence, knows both James and Ian. The two of us get to know each other as we take down and store the tents. At first I stopped to ask another volunteer I admire for his work with children and environmental issues, Jamie Robertson, if I can help out but he’s been there since 5:30 and all is under control. I work up my courage and mention to Jamie that I’m looking for something worthwhile and interesting to do and am available to help him in future if he needs the help. Another seed of many planted recently in this seemingly new direction in my life, inspired by the spirit of volunteerism and sincere desire to turn my life around and join this wonderful community here and the human race out there.

This wondrous chain of events came to me at 2:30 AM the next night after a dream, and I decided to get up and record this story so that it is not ignored or taken for granted as synchronistic events like this have in the past. It feels like a healing change is in the wind for me and I hope I can ride this new direction and fulfill my dreams of finding happiness and meaning in my modest life. Perhaps like many others out there, I still feel lost, sad and confused sometimes, but old and new friends are appearing out of the blue to remind me that I’m loved and I belong as much as anyone. I feel very inspired and reassured that the path will continue to unfold as it should and the seeds I plant along the way will reach fruition and provide me with what I deserve and need in life. The Rolling Stones said it all, “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you sometimes get what you need”.