In the welter of statistics about selected ethnic origins (singular or multiple) in the last census, one finding was often overlooked. Of the 25,309,330 people living in Canada in 1986, only 69,065 declared themselves as Canadians.

People meeting for the first time suddenly relax if they find they both have cats. And plunge into anecdote.

Success is not fame or money or the power to bewitch. it is to have created something valuable from your own individuality and skill a garden, an embroidery, a painting, a cake, a life.

Children and mothers never truly part--Bound in the beating of each other's hearts.

Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate.

We may look old and wise to the outside world. But to each other, we are still in junior school.

Human beings who leave behind them no great achievements, but only a series of small kindnesses, have not had wasted lives