Foggy morning walk

I was a bit grumpy when my hubby got up much too early for my liking this Saturday (read: sleep-in) morning -- but when I looked out the window and saw the fog, I was ready to go dog walking with my camera in short order. We decided to head to the Gold Bar/Rundle Park area of our city. Shadow was excited (as always) for a car ride, and had a lot of fun chasing his tail in the fog (not sure why -- he just did). He ended up with a hoar frosty face.

Here are a few pictures from our foggy morning walk. Misty mornings are magical to me -- as we passed the lamp post in the first picture below, I wondered if we might find our way into Narnia...

It's coming...

This afternoon, Shadow pup and I took an hour's walk, looking for signs of Spring. We found plenty!

The tulips beside the house are starting to make their appearance...

the river is opening up...

sap is flowing down this tree where a porcupine 

made a meal of bark...

students at the Bennett Centre were having classes outdoors. Cool bison!

A cyclist whizzed down the hill...

avoiding the winter grit on the road's edges...

Nobody to be found on toboggan or ski hills...

good thing, too -- the T-bar is stock still, 

and look at that mud!

Snowbanks are pretty much missing from the park...

and there's not much left for puddles, either.

A motorcyclist was running his machine 

around and around the block, listening carefully to it...

and there were little patches of green grass here and there...

We have happy tomato plants in our +30 degree greenhouse.

Yesterday I found some pussy willows...

and both days, I had a little dog 

who definitely needed a bath when we got home.

(It's a daily occurrence at present.)

Of course, it could snow tomorrow and we'll be back at square one,

but the strength of the sun says that winter can't last much longer...

Happy almost Spring!

Wisdom, Truth and Reconciliation (Day 4): Remembering the Children

There's another full day of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission today. Events can be found by clicking here. This evening around 6 p.m. there will be a gathering of people at the Shaw Conference Centre who will walk in solidarity (as I understand it) to the Alberta Legislature to wrap up the TRC. All are welcome.

For today, I close with the prayer with which our volunteer training began on Thursday morning, which I think originated with Anglican Church leaders on the 2008 Remembering the Children tour across Canada....

Remembering the Children

God of our Ancestors,
who holds the spirits of our grandmothers and grandfathers
and the spirits of our grandchildren,
Remembering the Children,
we now pledge ourselves to speak the Truth,
and with our hearts and our souls
to act upon the Truth we have heard
of the injustices lived,
of the sufferings inflicted,
of the tears cried,
of the misguided intentions imposed,
and of the power of prejudice and racism
which were allowed to smother the sounds and laughter of
the forgotten children.
Hear our cries of lament
for what was allowed to happen,
and for what will never be.
In speaking and hearing and acting upon the Truth
may we as individuals and as a nation
 meet the hope of a new beginning.
Great Creator God
 who desires that all creation live in harmony and peace,
Remembering the Children
we dare to dream of a Path of Reconciliation
where apology from the heart leads to healing of the heart
and the chance of restoring the circle,
where justice walks with all,
where respect leads to true partnership,
where the power to change comes from each heart.
Hear our prayer of hope,
and guide this country of Canada
on a new and different path.
Amen.

Click here to see Day 1...
Click here to see Day 2...
Click here to see Day 3...

Wisdom, Truth and Reconciliation (Day 3)

Day 3 was my day to volunteer, so I didn't get to listen to very many sessions. But there were experiences worth remembering...

... a man whose painful past made many of us cry... and add our tissues to the collection for the sacred fire...

... a woman who said, "I forgive my abusers, not because they deserve my forgiveness, but because I deserve to be free of the pain and hatred. I am free!...

... Terry Lusty, whose poems I appreciated yesterday, telling me that once he became a teacher, he taught in a First Nations school that burned down, and it was forced to relocate to an old Residential School... he never thought he'd have to enter a Residential School again, and here he had to teach in one. It must have been difficult beyond imagining... I wish I had asked him how it was for him...

... two women chuckling at class pictures they found in the archives (where I was volunteering) over the expressions on their faces, and the faces of their friends...

... looking around the tables at the archives area where so many people were poring over photo albums and feeling it was, in a way, like a big family reunion... except for the pain...

Click here to see Day 1...
Click here to see Day 2...
Click here to see Day 4...

Wisdom, Truth and Reconciliation (Day 2)

Today's moodlings from the Truth and Reconciliation commission...

... how beautifully our First Nations sisters and brothers lead prayer... rather than imposing their words, they invite everyone gathered to pray, and then stand away from the microphone to talk to Creator for a moment in their own language, allowing all to do the same...

... on a survivor's wall... "I am 72 years old, and still hurting. I need help"...
Another survivor wrote: "Don't just say sorry. You's also need to ask us for forgiveness"...

... the story of a young boy who was called ugly by the authorities at his residential school, and the abuse he suffered not only at their hands, but at the hands of other children who scapegoated him, though he was one of them. Imagine being 8 years old and forced to wade through the 3-hole lavatory pit in search of a handkerchief that a nun insisted you had used as toilet paper, though you knew full well that someone had stolen it from you...

... Emcee Stan Wesley leading the crowd in stomping our feet to make it sound like a herd of buffalo running through the convention hall, out the doors and down the river valley...

... the prayer by First Nations poet Terry Lusty that appears in today's Edmonton Sun newspaper...

... the story of a young girl whose 13-year-old brother was beaten to death by a nun. Now a woman in her seventies, his sister just wanted his story, and his name to be known. Michael Antoine...

... the story of another young boy who had hated and wanted to kill an abusive priest for over 50 years, but upon meeting his abuser at a funeral, the survivor apologized for his hatred instead, and realized that he was further along the road to reconciliation than the perpetrator of his abuse...

... the taped voice of a cancer-ridden and dying Jack Layton, former NDP leader of Canada, sharing the story of how his grandparents only survived their first winter in Canada through the kindness of New Brunswick Mi'kmaq  people living nearby who showed the newcomers where to find the sweet potatoes and how to live off the land... and Jack's undying commitment to the healing of First Nations people. His son, Mike Layton, brought the recording to the Edmonton TRC from Toronto...

... the post-traumatic stress flashbacks still suffered by survivors...

... the wisdom of parents who told their children, "We didn't give you up; they took you away"...

... the care of the people in the red and white vests who pass through the listening crowds with glasses of water, boxes of facial tissues, and paper bags to save the tear-filled tissues so that all tears are honoured by burning in the sacred fire that is carefully tended outside...

... the decision of many survivors to let go of bitterness and anger in favour of forgiveness...

... the mention of two good Catholic priests who accepted the hurt and anger of two survivors and created a safe place where their healing process began...

... the 2000+ prayer shawls made so that people who have to speak or hear difficult things can wrap themselves in courage...

... the long road ahead... and the challenge of reconciliation...

... and so much more. I encourage you to attend either in person at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton, or to follow online by clicking here for daytime broadcasts.

Here's a mini-documentary by Wab Kinew, one of today's honorary witnesses at the Edmonton TRC...

Click here to see Day 1...

Click here to see Day 3...

Click here to see Day 4...

Wisdom, Truth and Reconciliation (Day 1)

Seven flames in the logo represent the seven sacred teachings:
love, respect, courage, honesty, humility, truth and wisdom
(on the volunteer t-shirt, which also says "It Matters to Me.")

"In order to educate the [Aboriginal]children properly we must separate them from their families. Some people may say that this is hard but if we want to civilize them we must do that."

-- Hector Langevin, 

Public Works Minister of Canada, 1883

Wisdom. There wasn't much of it around when it comes to Canada's dealings with First Nations people in the past. But Wisdom is the theme of the final leg of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which is taking place here in Edmonton for the next three days.

I'm attending sessions at the Commission hosted at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton (on Treaty 6 Lands) not just as a volunteer, but as a Canadian who has grown up with First Nations friends. My friends' families were affected by the Indian Residential Schools which took aboriginal children as young as five years of age from their parents in an effort to turn them into Canadians according to the misguided colonial (and racist) version of what it meant to be Canadian. The stories told by many residential school survivors about loneliness, abuse, neglect and the destruction of their families and culture are devastating -- and something all Canadians need to understand. Most First Nations people have had a very, very, very bad rap since the first schools were opened well over a hundred years ago (the last one closed in 1996), and many of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are suffering now because of the pain their parents and grandparents still carry.

These days of Truth and Reconciliation are a step in the long journey toward healing. Today, thousands of people converged to begin four days of sharing stories, listening to and supporting one another, and offering or working toward forgiveness. There were many moving moments, and I'd like to share a few impressions/experiences from the point of view of one who stands in solidarity and support...

...waiting for my daughters outside the conference centre with a survivor named Ted as he had a smoke. He told me that if his residential school had been anything like the private sports academy up the road, there would be plenty of First Nations NHL players. "We were every bit as athletic, and there were lots of us in the junior leagues, but by the time we came of age, we had too many problems from the past following us." Ted has come a long way in his healing -- it was clear in the way he talked with me,  the light in his eyes, and the number of people who lit up when they saw him and came to greet him...

... chuckling with a man from Onion Lake when he asked my daughter for help to turn off his cell phone. Seems we both need teens to help us understand technology...

... the heartbeat of the drums during the Grand Entry procession...

... weeping with the man from Onion Lake as an Honour Song was sung for Residential School Survivors...

... a panel of five youth sharing their hopes for reconciliation and the change it can bring to relationships between all Canadians...

... a young non-aboriginal woman expressing the shame she felt when she first heard about Indian Residential schools, and her complicit shock and silence... for which many of us feel bad...

... Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the TRC, encouraging First Nations and other youth listening to the youth panel discussions to discover the answers to four important questions:
Where do I come from? (Discover your creation stories and the meaning of your name/clan)
Where am I going? (Discover relationship with the Spirit world that will welcome you one day)
Why am I here? (Discover what am I called to do for family and community) and
Who am I? (Discover and take my rightful place in creation with both pride and humility)...

... having the privilege of hearing the sharing of five survivors and intergenerational survivors who courageously told stories of how the Residential School experience affected them and their loved ones...

... sharing the moments above with my kids and halls full of people who want to see healing in our country...

If you are interested in the TRC but unable to attend, some of the proceedings are being broadcast live -- click here for daytime broadcasts. To learn more about events in Edmonton, check here. And to learn more about the Residential School experience in Canada, here's a link to an interim report called They Came for the Children.

I'll be moodling more on this subject over the next three days...

Click here to see Day 2...
Click here to see Day 3...
Click here to see Day 4...