NL - What is this Place?

Newfoundland and Labrador

It's our own little precious space and place upon Earth ...
Our Home
Our Heart
Our Soul
Our Song
Our Temple
Our most treasured amongst all cosmic gifts

Where our families and our tribe are
Where we want to be (even when we are not there)
Where we work (or hope to work one day)
Where we grow and learn (around the shore or up the shore)
Where we dance, sing our songs, recite our stories (in own own unique way)

Yes bye, we're
Geographically interesting
Culturally intriguing
Linquistigly wealthy
Historically rich
Politically passionate
Emotionally connected
Genetically spawned from ocean and waves
Amazingly talented and resilient are our people

We march to the beat of our own drum ... echoes from our Native brothers and sisters
We feel special and scared - even when others do not see our beauty
We are warriors  - yet peacekeepers, hospitable and community-minded
We're fierce about protecting our own and our outports ...
Fightin Nlers when we need be!

Spirited
Creative
Colourful
Genuine
Real
Friendly
Humourous
Charming
Soulful
Mysterious ...


This is where we fish upon the water
in oilskins and Cape Ann batten down
And where you can take the bayman out into the world,
but you cannot take the bayman from the depth of our being ...
Upon these waters we are brave and beautiful beings
and our blood is full of salt water and unimaginable scars
And we suffer our loss with stoicism for it blossoms our character

We know how to reach down to the bottom of our soul and carry on
We know how to lift our neighbours, our friends and our community
We know stuff that others just do not comprehend
Like how to jig a cod, cook a jigs dinner, go mummering
Ya, we just know about the real good stuff of life  and loving ...

We are built to endure  even as over time we 
transform ourselves time and time again
The winds of change ever blows upon our waters and shores and through our complex beings;
Yet, in the end we are attached (beyond a shadow of a doubt)
to this wonderful womb that is called Newfoundland and Labrador
Miraculously, it never changes - even when it changes ...

For it is
Our Comfort zone
Our Heartbeat
Our Shared Identity
Our Pride of Place
Our Universal Place
And which, as one poet enthused, holds fast our hearts and claims each of us for its own

Newfoundland and Labrador is more a place within
indescribably beautiful
our spiritual harbour
a pearl in our inner emotional sea

Even from space, it's soul sings a song of cosmic perfection ...
where "land and people are one ...locked in a forever love and longing ...



Picture - Chris Hatfield

What is this place

that keeps us in thrall

to ocean, to spindrift, to storm?