By Rev. Dr. Ed Hird
October in Canada (and November in the USA) is that special time of year when farmers harvest their crops of corn, pumpkins, squash, and winter potatoes. Nowadays in our high tech urbanized world we forget where our food comes from. In the old days farmers waited anxiously for a good harvest, knowing that their very future depended on it. Crop failure could mean poverty or even starvation. Much of our early immigration consisted of the victims of European famines, such as the Irish potato famines. There was no Government welfare in those days to buffer a bad crop. As a result, a good crop in the Fall brought heartfelt thanksgiving.
The farmers felt so grateful that they would take part of their crop and rush into the nearest church to give thanks to the Lord of the Harvest. To celebrate a successful wheat harvest, the grain would be ground into fine flour, made into bread and eaten at the communion service. Children, in particular, enjoy seeing the fruit, flowers and vegetables decorating the church. The whole emphasis of the Harvest Thanksgiving weekend is to say “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you”. The very word “Eucharist” in the Christian Communion Service means “Thank You”.
Thankfulness is the secret to a happy and fulfilled life. 
It is so easy to complain, so!, easy to become bitter, so easy to become cynical about life.’ The best antidote for cynicism is thanksgiving. Instead of grumbling about your spouse, try thanking God for them. Instead of complaining about your work, try thanking God that you have a job. instead of resenting your children when they’re noisy, thank God that they are alive and well. This Harvest Thanksgiving, let’s develop an attitude of gratitude. As one poster put it, “Happiness is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank”.
Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin
-an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier.
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There was a Jewish fellow many years ago who didn’t like all the fighting and bickering that people did. He stood up for peace and love and forgiveness. As a result, even his friends deserted him as he was mocked and lynched by an angry mob. He died because he was a peacemaker. He died at the hands of amateur politicians who saw him as a disturbance. But before he died, he taught the people “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.”
The first thing that comes to mind as soon as you say Easter, is eggs. One of the customs most popular with children is hunting Easter eggs. I’ll never forget the fun I had as a school-age boy running around my back yard collecting hidden Easter eggs. My sisters loved to eat their chocolate eggs. I loved to hoard mine. Sometimes I sold my left over eggs to them in exchange for money or comics.
eggs, which they roll down hills. The boy or girl whose egg rolls the longest distance without breaking wins his opponent’s egg and keeps his own. The first annual 
One day before the infamous 
One of the ways that anglophone and francophone Canadians are beginning to embrace each other is through the remarkable gift of the Alpha Course. As the former National Chair for 
Jesus wasn’t cross at Judas who betrayed him with a kiss. He wasn’t cross at Peter who denied him three times. He wasn’t cross at his other disciples who all ran for their lives. He wasn’t even cross at the Roman soldiers who took great delight in torturing and humiliating him before his final execution. Instead Jesus cried out from the cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. The heart of the Cross is forgiveness, forgiving the unthinkable, forgiving the unforgivable.
You may have heard how the band on the sinking ship Titanic played ‘Nearer My God to Thee..Even though it be a Cross’. Dr. ES Jones knew an author on the Titanic who plunged into the icy sea with a precious manuscript that he had been writing for years. He saw a child in the water –the manuscript or the child? He dropped the manuscript and swam to the child. It was dead. He found another child, alive, held it up, tried to get into a lifeboat, but the boat was too full. He grasped a nail on the side of the lifeboat. It pierced his hand, and there he hung by that nail, saving the little child. That author sacrificed his precious manuscript to go the way of the cross. His nail-scarred hand brought life to a precious little one.
Dale Lang became a Hot Air Balloon Pilot in 1974 and then ran his own full time Balloon Business in Calgary until 1984. During that time Dale had the privilege of winning the first Canadian National Hot Air Balloon Championship in 1979, and then co-piloting the first balloon over the North Pole in 1980.
“At the end of the day, the whole point that I’m making is that we have to be compassionate people who actually care about others, even the people who are tough for us to like,” Mr. Lang said to the Globe and Mail newspaper before addressing the Education Safety Association of Ontario’s annual conference in Toronto. “If everywhere I speak one person’s life is changed for the positive, I’ll keep on going.”
Jason Lang was in many ways a typical teen, according to his dad. He enjoyed sports and had bought his first car – a 1983 Camaro – three days before he died. The very morning of Jason’s death, his father Dale had helped him learn how to drive the five-speed Camaro. “On the last day of Jason’s life, he and I were the best of friends,” said Mr. Lang. “I hope you understand how thankful I am that April 28, 1999, was not a day we argued.
Countless numbers of us in Canada and around the world were deeply touched by the loss of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The astronauts were doctors, scientists, pilots, women, men, wives, husbands, fathers and mothers, from many races and cultures. We gave thanks for these courageous explorers who ‘pushed the envelope’, risking their lives to discover more about the amazing universe that we live in.
Shuttle commander Rick Husband, in a pre-recorded videotape before he went into space, said: “If I ended up at the end of my life having been an astronaut but having sacrificed my family along the way or living my life in a way that didn’t glorify God, then I would look back on it with great regret and having become an astronaut would not really have mattered all that much,” Husband said on the video. “And I finally came to realize that what really meant the most to me was to try and live my life the way God wanted me to and to try and be a good husband to Evelyn and to be a good father to my children.”