Perspective taking and a pause

Can we start our Canada Day with a bigger-than-just-me-pause? For some, this “holiday” is a marker of heartache and trauma. This may not be your experience. But it is the reality for some.

I asked my 25 year old son, “What do you think? Do we ‘cancel’ Canada Day?” His response,

“To cancel it honors no one. Erasing history doesn’t right history. But can we incorporate mourning into the celebration?”

Chief Cadmus Delorme (Cowness First Nation) invites us to consider, “We all inherited this…and we have to acknowledge that people are healing and people are hurting…” Donate a Car Canada doesn’t have answers. We are a team who aims to do justly and mercifully. And so, we pause. Reflect. And wonder about a world that is full of Goodness for all.

Lightness and sadness…both-and

While reflecting with each day’s new news, we also feel the gratitude. Canada Day is day to laugh at ourselves a little, too!

Check out the Reader’s Digest Top 13 Reasons to live in Canada. Beluga whales to ice hotels — we’ve got it all!

Canada Day reminder that we’re Still Standing

And if you need a weekly reminder of just how strong, funny, and determined your fellow Canadians are, check out CBC’s Still Standing as comedian Jonny Harris “…explores small towns on the ropes, performs stand-up shows for the locals who’ve stuck it out, and proves that Canadians know how to laugh at themselves.”

BoredPanda

45 funny pictures that perfectly sum up Canada? Well, maybe not perfectly. But some are chuckle-worthy!

Clearing out the garage this long weekend?

If your Canada Day is more about getting after some long-overdue tasks, we’ve got you covered! That unused or unwanted vehicle sitting in the garage? We can turn it into a cash donation for your Canadian charity of choice! Your vehicle, running or not, means dollars and cents for your cause.

We’ll re-sell or recycle your car, truck, van, or motorcycle. The net proceeds will go to your chosen charity. ‘Free tow and a tax receipt for you!

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Kindness is one of Donate a Car Canada’s core values. We are a locally owned and operated business. So, we have overhead costs and need to earn enough money to keep the doors open. The women that take your calls and compassionately field your donations need to feed their kiddos! And having a key value of kindness behind it all makes doing this important work rewarding.

Acts of Kindness in Canada

In her, “9 Random Acts of Kindness That Will Make You Proud to be Canadian” online Reader’s Digest article, Rebecca Tucker paints an engaging picture of what it looks like to be uniquely kind in Canada.

Tucker’s collection of stories championing individual and community efforts of caring invite us to tackle kindness in big and small ways. In fact, the limits to how we extend this basic human dignity are only limited by imagination.

The Reader’s Digest Who’s Who

Rebecca notes 9 groups and individuals who have made a difference in their own unique ways:

Stella Bowles of Upper LaHave, N.S: Eco-Hero! She took it upon her 11-year-old self (she’s a teen, now) to investigate and address pollution in the LaHave River.

Staff at the York Care Centre, a Fredericton retirement facility, immediately circled in to support one of their own who had been victimized by a violent crime.

Milestone, Saskatchewan farmers banded together to pull in a community member’s crops when hard times fell on the family.

Larissa Arthur, an RN heading home from a mountain hike, saved Mike Estepa’s life. He’d collapsed of a heart attack on a bicycle trek, and she happened upon him just in time.

Three crab fishers from St. Lewis, N.L. pulled off a dramatic Arctic Fox rescue. Fishing the little guy in from where he was stuck on the ice, they nurtured him to health and set him free.

Rebecca Schofield (#BeccaToldMeTo) gave her dying days to spreading a message of acts of kindess in even the smallest things, like, “opening doors, buying coffee for strangers, giving out granola bars at the gym.”

Frank Vieira received the Goodyear Highway Hero Award for a dramatic roadside rescue.

Andrew Harper, a 95 year-old philanthropist seeking to honor his beloved late wife, made an unprecedented financial contribution to the Chez Doris women’s day shelter.

Kyle Busquine, Julio Cabrera, and Jehangir Faisal exhibited the stuff of superheros, jumping on the tracks to rescue a fallen man.

What’s your next kindness contribution?

So many ways to share the best of who we are. At any time. In any place. I don’t have $1 million dollars to gift to a women’s shelter, but I do have $5.00. I haven’t the energy in this ol’ body to save a river, but I can pick up the trash I see on my daily walks. And, even on the tired and overwhelming and “What the goodness is going on in this crazy world!?” days, I can offer dignity and respect to every heart I encounter.

To all who will show me kindness today (I don’t even know who you are, yet!), thank you. I will do my part to keep kindness going, too.

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