That one day

Long ago, sometime in the early 80's there was a girl who was around 11 years old who sat playing with her older sister. They were designing their jackets, sewing random things onto them to look cool. After all, cool was in. All the time they were talking about friends, people, music, and movies. The craze to them was affiliation with groups, it seemed like the place to be for some reason. To be part of. Anyways while the one girl sat there, she made up in her mind that one day she would make it into movies. She didn't know exactly what that entailed but the rush of it flowed through her body like water hitting you from a waterfall. Never ending, always flowing. It wasn't going to stop, and it never did stop. Only thing that happened, was life. Life of school, life of friends, boyfriends, marriage, children, homes, moving, packing, searching, jobs, traveling, money, death and addictions. Even through all that, the always flowing waterfall of her dream ran still. It ran in her veins, it ran in her subconscious and never cease to stop. So what she did, was a struggle at first, she got back into school to finish her highschool credits and she did. After a four year battle of procrastination, she finally completed with a great huge smile. Then she went to apply to college, where she was accepted after some mix up and near devasting refusal, she fought to get in and persisted. After a meeting with some important people, she was in! On the way home one day not too long after, she cried on the way home as she drove down the road. Soft tears fell in huge quantities as each one represented a joy of her happiness, she was finally there. At the door she had dreamed of for so long, as that little girl who said she wanted to make movies, she was at the very doorstep. Today, she is riding and sailing through college with great mentors who are in very best interest of her dreams. And even though it took some twenty five years to get where she is, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that she is there, and where she goes from there will be completely up to her. Her life is in her hands, and she wants to do wonderful things with that life.

Life as a Native American

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a weekend gathering (pow wow) at Pelican Falls First Nation highschool. I traveled along side of my husband, my two sons, my daughter, and two friends. We stayed and checked into a nice hotel, drove around the small town of Sioux Lookout and then headed out to Pelican Falls. I'm a jingle dress dancer, and so is my daughter and we attend many gatherings throughout Ontario which is a lot of fun. My sons are drummers and singers, so they also attend a lot of gatherings with us or with other groups that are traveling during the summer months. It's a lot of fun we enjoy each other's company, crack jokes, tell stories, share information, meet people, see old friends, dance, celebrate life, and enjoy the outdoors. This weekend we met some ladies from Wisconsin who took our picture and shared with us their thoughts and some background, it was nice. My husband got to see some community members from his reserve, and he really enjoyed that. Most of all, he got to see his cousin who we haven't seen for nearly fourteen years and it was so nice. We've wanted to bump into him for so long, he hadn't seen our kids since they were small and he was quite surprised because how much they've grown since he saw them. He was speechless. So before we left him, we went out for a bite to eat and gave him our address and phone number so he could contact us when he needed to. He's a long time guide with an outfitters camp and he loves his job because he's been at it for over ten years. It was a great time. Best of all, the weather was beautiful all weekend and we couldn't have asked for more. Pow wows are a great time for us, to relax and have fun because that's what it's about. As a jingle dress dancer it means a lot to me to be there for the people, to dance for the people for healing. I will always present tobacco to the Creator in thanks before I dance at pow wows, and this pow wow was no different. Of course, I have to say that it was an emotional time for me because it was the first time I wore my new dress at this pow wow. And knowing that this place had so much history of abuse with the Residential School being there once upon a time, I was moved while dancing at times. I felt as if the spirits who were long gone we right there with me, dancing with me. It was amazing. I will never forget this experience, it is one the will stay with me for a long time to come.