November 28th, 2019

ICE COLOURS

“When the people call Earth “it,”
  They use her
   consume her strength.
   Then the people die.”
             Marilou Awiakta, When Earth Becomes an “It”
I have a theory about one of the reasons why our world is used so crassly. It’s contained in these words: ‘HUMAN RESOURCES’ and ‘NATURAL RESOURCES’.

A lot of uninhibited destruction has been caused by those words.
    
“the last wolf hurried toward me
    through the ruined city
    And I heard his baying echoes
    down the steep smashed warrens
    of Montgomery Street and past
    the few ruby-crowned high-rises
    left standing
    their lighted elevators useless.”


    “I heard his voice ascending the hill
    and at last his low whine as he came
    floor by empty floor to the room
    where I sat
    in my narrow bed looking west, waiting
    I heard him snuffle at the door and
    I watched
    he trotted across the floor


    he laid his long gray muzzle 
    on the spare white spread
    and his eyes burned yellow
    his small dotted eyebrows quivered


    Yes, I said.
    I know what they have done.”
            Mary TallMountain, The Last Wolf 
                                                                         ***

BUSTER'S GUARD RAT

I remember a funeral for an old fella. He was as stubborn as all get out. He had no power, he had no phone and his house was ramshackle. He was also a hoarder. His yard was buried in his treasures.

Gossip about this fella’s life style careened throughout the land. The general consensus was he’d lived a life which wasn’t up to most peoples’ standards. He’d made bad decisions and just look where that got him.
However, they all agreed he was one tough cookie.

​

CHARLIE

The fella was found dead in his one small room where there was space for his couch and a wee wood stove.

There was touching music at his funeral. The minister said nice things about him. Gave us a little sermon and, as usual, I tried my best to make sense of the fractured pieces of theology.

​The minister then gave the benediction. The service was over. Except it wasn’t. An Indigenous woman wanted to say a few words.

LIVING TOTEM POLE

She talked about this deceased man from an entirely different perspective. Nothing about what he had or didn’t have. Nothing about what kind of life’s choices he had made. They knew he wasn’t perfect, but they admired him for who he was. They loved him because he wasn’t afraid of them and enjoyed being with them. They liked his stories, wild or otherwise.

Her speech was very emotional and without judgement. It was plain that this old hoarder was highly valued by the Indigenous People.

​It also reminded me of why I valued my time spent with the Indigenous People. They saw life in a different way. They lived life in a different way. They weren’t judgemental and filled with musterbations. This Indigenous woman reminded me of what I have tried to value in my own life.

ESKASONI CROSS

“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”
                Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monster

STATUE OF VIRGIN MARY IN ESKASONI

WEE FAIRY AT VIRGIN MARY'S FEET

Sue and I have, for much of our lives, tried to live as far away from the rat race of accumulation and hype as we could. Our lives have both, in many ways, gone against the accepted grain.

SUE ENJOYING CAPE BRETON BEAUTY

Sue lived in a cabin in the woods years before we met. I encountered her in the woods and then we both lived in the cabin. We lived with no running water and no road access in the winter. 

​When the road was covered in snow we’d park our vehicles about a half kilometre from the cabin. We’d ski, snowshoe or walk to our vehicles which were often covered with the tongue marks of cows, horses or deer. They loved licking the tasty salt off my truck and Sue’s car.

BUSTER SAW HIM FIRST

The first day I parked my truck in this field I had to say excuse me to a giant horse who stuck his head inside my truck and tried to lick my steering wheel.

​Previously, I’d lived on a reserve for some time and had to listen to folks tell me how dangerous it was. How they wouldn’t last five minutes on the reserve. And I got advice about what I should be doing to make my life safer, saner, more sanitized and predictable.

ESKASONI ISLANDS

Over seven years ago, Sue and I moved to Cape Breton. We felt safer after we crossed the Canso Causeway and entered Cape Breton. Because, there’s a feeling when you enter Cape Breton that you are now in the land of the wild. The land of the stubborn and the non-conformist. A place where you don’t have to be cow-towing to the way things should be done and many people here are as stubborn as hell.

CARVED FEATHER IN ESKASONI FOREST

However, when we moved into our mobile home even some of these Cape Breton folks were worried about our safety. Because, you see, it was located on a flood plain. We were told some folks were talking about how one day a mighty flood would wash us out and into the ocean and we’d all drown.

SQUIRREL OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW

Have to tell you, life isn’t boring when you’re watching the river licking her chops over the river bank.

A CAUTIOUS MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM BUSTER

Did I mention we also live in a snow belt? And we don’t plough our driveway all that well in the winter and insurance companies don’t like that. We also have our woodpile in a bad location and they don’t like that. So—-well, you see where that could go. Mum’s the word. Okay? 
But, it’s damn gorgeous here! Got to say that.
"If a man does not keep pace
with his companions,
Perhaps it is because he hears
a different drummer.
Let him step to the music he hears,
However measured or far away."
                D. H. Thoreau

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SUE, BUSTER AND A DROWSY LOOKING LARRY