June is the gateway to summer.
Jean Harvey
The onset of June brings much pleasure to many people of all ages. It signals the end of the school year, and students and teachers and administrators look forward to their summer vacation. It heralds the gardening season in earnest, and fishing trips and swimming in a lake. It's the beginning of the barbecue season. Indeed, there are more daylight hours in June than in any other month of the year. June should make everyone happy.
What makes you happy? What is happiness? Happiness is a tough goal to achieve. Many people pursue happiness, only to find that they never quite reach it. There is always something more to want, something bigger or better or newer. We are in a very materialistic world.
Really, the only way to get happiness is to give it away. Provide friends, families, strangers, co-workers with some of your time and good energy. If you see a need somewhere, fill it. Give away a smile, a handshake, or a hug. Have people over for dinner, help shovel a driveway, split some firewood, cut some grass, paint a fence. You know what I'm talking about.
And do it gladly. Do not feel like you are burdening yourself. You are not obligated, but you should be wanting to do good things. It's a pleasure to be a good person. So quit pursuing happiness. Give it away and let it pursue you.
June has significant celebratory days. Some that are pertinent to us include the first day of summer, which also happens to be National Indigenous Peoples Day. Best wishes to all of our First Nations friends in Clinton. And who could overlook Father's Day on June 15? Let every father remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice (I found this in a church bulletin).
We are saddened to learn that Andy and Yvette May have sold their house and will be moving to Listowel, Ontario this summer. We wish them well in their future endeavours and thank them both for their great contributions to Clinton. The Clinton Seniors’ Association will miss you, Yvette.
The Clinton Seniors’ Association Yard Sale is on Tuesday, July 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Seniors’ Centre (217 Smith Avenue). Thank you to everyone who has given us things to sell. There's still time to leave good used items on the porch of the centre. Your contributions are very much appreciated.
If you are in the park for the flag-raising on July 1, Canada Day, ponder these words of Lester B. Pearson, prime minister of Canada from 1963–1968: "Under this flag may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada; for a patriotism based not on mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land."
Pearson's predecessor, John Diefenbaker — Canada's 13th prime minister — left no room for doubt when he spoke these words about how he felt about Canada and its people: "We shall be Canadians first, foremost and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country." Those words resonate with many today, as they did several decades ago.
Happy birthday greetings to Yvette May (June 18).
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Franz Kafka
