A Mother Earth Mother's Day

Moodling online has gone out the window with Spring's arrival. So much to do outdoors, and so little time!

But this past Mother's Day weekend, I had nothing but time with my best friend, who lives in Duncan, BC. Instead of presents for our birthdays, we decided to enjoy each others' presence. And it just so happened that my visit with Cathy coincided with a Cowichan 101 session offered by some elders of the Cowichan Tribe in the form of a trip to T'l'oqwxwat, known (in English) as Avatar Grove. It's an old-growth forest that was saved from logging in 2009. Click here to read the story of how Avatar Grove came to be protected by the Ancient Forest Alliance. And if you love old forests, consider contributing to the cause.

At 8:30 a.m., about 35 people from the Duncan area boarded Lisa's school bus for what felt like a long drive toward Port Renfrew, and a bit further up a very bumpy logging road to the Grove. There were a half dozen vehicles parked on the edge of the road near a small sign that offers very little indication of the wonders above and below it.

After we hiked up a fairly well-made path to "Canada's Gnarliest Tree," we gathered to hear two Cowichan leaders, Fred and Rob, speak about the forest and its abundant healing properties. They sang and drummed for us, talked about the medicines found in old-growth forests, and about how their ancestors spent 40 years cutting and hollowing out thousand-year-old trees to build sea-going canoes that took them all the way to Malibu in California.

Fred played his Salish wind instrument so beautifully that tears rolled unbidden down my cheeks. I sat against a several hundred-year-old tree, set my camera to record and laid it in my lap so that I could just listen, breathe, pray, and watch the gorgeous movement overhead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DitpK24Facc

One of our leaders noted that in Japan, people pay small fortunes to go on corporate retreats to "breathe with the trees." I will never forget doing just that in Avatar Grove, spending three hours appreciating Mother Earth's goodness and beauty, and "all our (non-human) relations."

Avatar Grove is a sacred place to the Cowichan peoples -- as all old-growth forests should be for all of us. Our leaders invited us to offer prayers there, to lay down our burdens at the feet of the trees, to settle against them and asbsorb their goodness and the pure air they offer. I can't begin to describe amazing presence there.

Old-growth forests are incredible places that speak about the cycles of life -- if only we listen. Every ancient tree has five or six ecosystems, probably more, stretching from beneath its roots all the way to its crown, and the forest itself witnesses to the tenacity of life from beginning to end. I was amazed at the soil made of decomposing cedar, fir and hemlock, how new and older trees grew out of fallen or broken trunks, and how some trees were hosts to more species of flora and fauna than I could even imagine, including white and magenta trillium.

Here are some pictures that can't possibly do justice to the spirit of the place. As another participant noted, it's kind of comforting to know that technology can't begin to see the way human beings see and experience things...

If you're ever out Port Renfrew way and can make your way up a bumpy forestry road to T'l'oqwxwat/Avatar Grove, it's definitely worth the trip. There's nothing like sitting on the knee of a six-hundred-year-old Douglas Fir and breathing with her. Especially on Mother's Day weekend. I'm so blessed...

Deepest gratitude to Lisa, Rob, and Fred.

My (very early) morning at the Museum

Edmonton said goodbye to the old Royal Alberta Museum last weekend by inviting the public to a 48-hour marathon farewell. I talked about it with my girls and mentioned that if we were to attend, we should pick a time when it wouldn't be too crowded -- like four in the morning (over 35,000 people visited in those 48 hours, and my sister experienced the crowds on Friday night and wished she'd stayed home).

"Let's do it!" said Julia, our youngest daughter. So I told her to set her alarm for 4 a.m. Sunday morning and we'd go.

At 4:15 a.m. Julia came and woke me from a very sound sleep. I was confused by her appearance in our room until she said, "It's time to go to the museum, Mom."

"Do you really want to go?" I asked, preparing to haul myself out from under my warm blankets.

"Not really," she said, and headed back to her bedroom. Oh well.

But you don't wake me at 4:15 a.m. and expect me to go back to sleep. I laid in bed hoping to doze off, but after 45 minutes I decided: "Maria, if you don't get up and go to the museum to say goodbye, it will be one of those things you'll regret." (I've always been a sentimental fool of sorts.)

Had to see these pioneers one more time.

I tried to wake my girls to take them along, but they seemed more interested in their pillows, so I ate some breakfast, made a travel mug of coffee, and drove through a dark and disorienting downtown, arriving at the museum at 5:31 a.m.

As I walked in, I realized that it was the first time I had ever been to the Royal Alberta Museum alone. I found myself moodling about how museums are a place of wonder and awe about life as I spent a lovely two hours wandering around, remembering different experiences from my past:

as a grade five student learning about Alberta's first peoples,

 as a grade eight student learning to identify Alberta wildlife, 

I always loved the cub on the lower right, playing with a feather

as a teacher bringing my own grade four class to learn about rocks, 

Mark S. and Jon H. liked the UV rock room...

and as a mom, trying to stay calm as my child held a centipede from Madagascar!

"Mom! Mom! It doesn't feel slimy at all!"

Walking through the museum by myself was quite wonderful. 

There was no one to hurry me along 

so I looked at things at my own speed 

and even watched an entire 15-minute video loop 

about Aboriginal traditions from start to finish. 

But I'll admit it would have been much nicer 

to share the experience with my girls 

(who in the end were sorry to have missed one last visit to the museum).

At the end of my morning, I went to the Goodbye/Hello room

 and found myself a little emotional 

as I wrote my own message to sum up 

my 30+ years of experience at the museum:

On the way home, I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise

along the boardwalk overlooking Victoria Park.

The museum closed its doors nine hours later, 

and will reopen in a new location in downtown Edmonton

in two years. It will be hard for the new museum 

to beat the memories I treasure from its old location,

that's for sure.