Heather Lane of Thornhill, Ontario has submitted her story of faith to the Golden Thread Contest. Every submission to the Golden Thread Contest will be considered for publishing in the Thread of 1000 Stories. The deadline for submissions is September 25, 2017 and individuals can submit an unlimited number of stories. Full contest rules can be found here.
Faith. A five-letter word, yet it holds so much meaning and value. Faith can mean belief. It can pertain to religion, your family, your past, present, and future.
What does Faith mean to me? It means never giving up, never losing sight of what’s most important. It means grasping onto that outstretched hand, pulling and pulling so your fingers don’t lose their hold and you can firmly plant your feet on the ground. It means my mother’s and father’s parents eventually arriving on Canadian soil with little money and little clue about how to restart their lives after the Second World War.
And I must say, the journey wasn’t one that was joyful or easy. However, they found new opportunity in Canada where there were furniture shops to own in Toronto, and ultimately somewhere to call home.
I rely on their faith and resilience, their hard-work and their ability to start families in this amazing country, to guide me and show me just how important Faith is. They never lost sight of what was most important to them, and I think that’s extremely admirable and courageous.
As I grew older, I could sit down with my grandparents (unfortunately, my grandfather on my mother’s side has since passed away), and I could really understand just how difficult their past was. Now, I can carry and pass on these stories, their stories of hope and faith combined.
Whenever I'm going through a difficult situation, I have the remarkable ability to recall their situations, and I can think to myself that I can get through this, with just a little bit of Faith.
Faith intertwines each and every one of us. It strengthens our cores, our unity, our love for one another regardless of age, sex, gender, race, or religion. It’s a word that can be translated into thousands of languages, yet it plays such a vital role in all of our lives in Canada.
I’m still figuring out each individual and complicated layer that makes up Faith, and as I glide through life I’m able to form and craft each story that has yet to be unravelled, just as a thread would.
Faith: a word so beautiful and haunting that possesses the ability to trace back to my grandparents and past generations. It is a word so deeply embedded in our roots, except all it takes is a bit of digging.
And may I ask, what does Faith mean to you?
Heather Lane is a Grade 12 student in Thornhill Ontario who is nourishing her love for Canada.
