My Granite Embrace: A Love Letter

I hold in my heart a passionate and never-ending love for my homeland, which is you - Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is a love that is strong and abiding, and has been since I drew my first breath of your Labrador air more than 50 years ago. Regardless of where I go, my love for you never falters, and I will always come home to you.

Why do I love you so fiercely? Let me tell you why.

All my life I have felt your granite arms around me. Inside your embrace you provide me with a cloak that changes with your many seasons.

In winter it is a soft white cloak as the snow creates such amazing vistas. The cloak changes as spring begins, and that cloak is covered with tulips, the smell of fresh earth, the sound of trickling water, and new beginnings. It is a magnificent experience to feel the change as winter loosens its grasp and allows changes to begin.

Summer gives me a cloak of warm sun rays, long daylight, a collage of blossoms, the sound of boat motors, bountiful berries of different colours, their taste so very enjoyable as I sit on your rocky shore and listen to the ebb and flow of the tide and eat my fill of your gifts.

Autumn’s cloak is made of many colours and is a collage that is both beautiful and breathtaking. The red and gold leaves, the brilliant scarlet bunches of berries that we call "Dogberries," and the cooler winds causing you to tighten your embrace as I marvel at the splendor you are revealing.

I also love your sense of fun as you refuse to comply with just four seasons, and trick and play with us, springing us back to winter, falling back into summer, and always testing our resourcefulness as a people. We experience many back and forth seasons, keeping us grounded and aware of what a place Mother Nature holds in our lives. I do realize it, and feel safe in your strong granite arms.

I love you for the smell of salt air, your blue sky, a blue unsurpassed by any other, for your red berries, your white birds and whiter snow, your yellow sunlight, the ruby-red bogs covered in our provincial flower, "The Pitcher Plant," and so many other interesting plants, such as the pond lilies, most of them sitting proudly and reflecting in the calm water. All the colours of our flag are displayed by you; we just have to pay attention and find them.

I love your breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, your lofty mountain splendor, the sparkling emeralds, the phosphorus in the sea, and the reflections that give me pause to reflect and leave me with a sense of awe and wonder. It is a sense not unlike a small child seeing a Christmas tree for the first time, an image that stays in my mind to be pulled out in times of upheaval.

I love the "swoosh" sound of the grouse taking flight, the waves on the shoreline, the whales in the bay, and the sight of the huge eagles flying overhead. I love the Canada Geese that have made my little community their winter home.

I love your people, their kind smiles and ways, their unlimited talents, accordion music, the singing dialects of your people, and the laughter that skips through our lives with it all. It makes me proud to be one of your children.

For as long as I live my love for you will be steadfast. My first breath was given to me by your air and it is my wish that my last breath will be also.

Newfoundland, I will love you forever, plus one day, and I have told you just some of the reasons why.

With everlasting love, I remain always yours,

Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe.   Submitted By: Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe