Spiritual Teaching Assistants

So, I go to bed early last night, and spend some time writing and editing some materials for a book.  It's a beautiful full moon, of "Weighs the Truth" and I'm aware of how bright the room is... In my Type-A left brain, I could move forward with another project because I'd completed all the prep for the upcoming class.  Or so I thought. I fall asleep, and at 02:30 I am awakened to a message that the information I need for the Psychospiritual Development class is not complete; I am missing the "Metascience" information, a book list and some score sheets for the old Duke University parapsychology tests.  Hmmm.  Agreed. 

I thank the guides and teachers for the information, but I didn't need to hear about it in the wee hours.  One of the things I spend significant amounts of time teaching students is about the ethics of channeling and personal boundaries.  In the training I received, it is never alright to spontaneously walk up to a person and say "I'm a medium and I have a message for you - do you want to hear it?"  Usually this is done in a public place when the recipient of the message is caught off guard.  My teachers advised, rightfully, that this is an unethical breach of their boundaries.   What I wouldn't do to another, I don't want to have happen to me - I don't want messages imposed upon me when I'm sound asleep and have not opened to receive.  It is a reminder to put up protection.  I try to teach students to "start out as you wish to continue" in the channeling relationship.

Brian and I rectified the missing documents, as per the helpful messages.  I was pleased that all the copies of student notes were already made - I just updated them with a few additional sheets of information.  We've got the white board and easel, the room is set up and new white board markers purchased.  I've retrieved all the books and tools we need.  I'm pumped, and ready to go.  The ancestors know they need to be patient until tomorrow.  It's all good...

Birthday fun

Tis the night before my birthday...  I came to bed at 6:30 and am wide awake at just about 11:15.  Hmmm...  It was a quiet, gentle day and I did some channeling this afternoon for a grieving friend.  She's in a better place and that feels fabulous... it always does...

We set up my studio for the Psychospiritual Development class scheduled to start next weekend.  It's been awhile since I taught channeling and I'm quite excited! This week I prep the notes and pull together all the materials for the students.  The connection with Spirit is fleeting if one doesn't work at it, like any good relationship worth having in life.  I know there are times I've let my relationship lag a bit, and then suddenly I'll notice that I feel adrift - even lost.  At other times I've been more in touch with people in spirit (and angels) than those in this dimension!  I need to keep a happy medium...  ha ha, a funny.  Happy medium.

Anyway I'm aware of something in the air - the earth - called the "quickening".  This was an old Spiritualist term for a vibrational boost we get when connecting to higher vibrating realms.  I also feel it when the energy starts to shift within the earth.  The trees are waking up. In the next couple of weeks the sap will be flowing and the snow banks dissipating into the ground.  The melt is supporting the water table.  I feel it, usually after Valentines, so it is a bit later starting this year.  Whenever it comes, I'll take it!  The winter is winding down and the beasts will be stirring towards nesting.  I love the birdsong and the early flowers.

I've wondered about this coming year - my 58th - and ask myself how to manifest "the new".  I know in my heart something is coming...  it has familiar elements, and yet is going to push my boundaries.  I welcome it and am grateful for the abundance in my life.  Bllessings and peace, friends.  I'll have some carrot cake and toast you all!

What a difference a day makes...!

I've been knitting a lot over the past couple of years...  a rough mental count says 31 prayer/healing shawls, in addition to myriad hats, socks, gloves and a couple dog sweaters.  Knitting is profoundly healing.  I've knit, crocheted and sewn since childhood, but I never realized how much I need to knit.  I taught myself with books and magazines initially, because my mother was a "lefty" so it was hard to follow her movements.  My grandmother taught me some basics, but that was infrequent.  I was by enlarge self-taught.  All the years of complex lacework and spinning my own yarns have given me a sense of spiritual intertwining with the work I produce...

Today I create my own patterns, using sacred geometry.  My love of nature, and especially birds, incubated a need to create shawls which are like bird wings  I love blending the colours, graphing the designs and the math...  the math is sublime!  I adore the harmony the math creates when interpreted by the stitches, yarns and colours.  It's trippy!  Lately I incorporate the resonance patterns of crystals with the sacred geometry.  Every stitch is from my hands... the shawls birthing from the needles are deceptively simple looking.  While I tag each piece and attempt to convey the meaning of each dodem bird, the proof is in the wearing, not the words.

Visitors to our studio are impressed by the knitting.  I'm glad; it is heart-warming when people pick up on the intention of my work.  By the same token, Brian's woodwork appears simple, yet the stages and effort taken to create the items is intensive. Art is a gift from the heart and soul.

Anyway, I've drafted out and started two similar but yet very different, shawls.  One is in the progression of a rainbow, or the basic chakras.  The other shawl incorporates some of the same yarns, yet is designed to reflect Parrot. The Parrot shawl is destined for a client in Mexico.  I love that my shawls are flying around the world...  the loving intention and healing they bring to me, as maker, is something I am glad to share.  Peace.

A long time coming…

So here we are in 2015. It's very obvious to anyone who's followed this blog that I haven't posted in a very long time - there is a reason for that… I've had a great deal of healing to do.  You'll notice from the history that in 2006 and 2007 my postings averaged about 3 every 2 weeks and then dropped dramatically after we started working for the government.  Finding the time and living through unending renovations made focusing on my blog [and Moonstar Lodge] the difficult thing.We worked for the ministry for 4 1/2 years and in that time developed programs, ran circles, fulfilled our Midewiwin obligations and raised a child. What we didn't expect to experience was the issue of lateral violence. We were outsiders in this community and as a result thought to be unworthy of the financial remuneration for the contract we successfully bid on.

Right now in 2015 there is an incredible emphasis on missing and murdered aboriginal women, missing and murdered aboriginal men and racism.  What isn't in the limelight is the issue of lateral violence.  In a nutshell lateral violence relates to aboriginal communities/individuals fighting with other aboriginal communities/individuals for money, gain, power or the limelight.  The dangling of some proverbial carrot is causing our own people to fight with each other in a way that we are not gaining anything and in fact supporting the agenda of "divide and conquer".

I came out of the aboriginal closet as a teenager and literally clawed my way through a morass of colonial genocide to be recognized and own who I really am...  I thought I had to be Métis because I lived off reserve and that is not so. Brian and I have made a concerted effort to ensure that our daughter [at 16] has not and does not know the same sorts of struggles. She owns, and knows exactly who she is and is out in the community as an aboriginal female. Gains have been made at governmental levels to some degree, but not where money is involved.  Anyway it's 2 1/2 years later and I've processed a whole lot of healing and grief. I've gone from being able to provide adequately for my family but now I am broke - but not broken.  The PTSD issues I had as a child flared for a while but I've got them under control. Part of my healing journey has been to recognize that the  4.5 years with the ministry were only part of the 34 years plus I've been doing what I do as Moonstar Lodge.  Lateral violence does not keep me down.  My studio is my sanctuary and I continue to perform and provide the services that my community requests.

For the 1st time in 7 years I am teaching Psychospiritual Development.  We've tried to offer classes in this community (they never ran) and yet this class is full! In the 7 years since we've been here our online presence, the World Wide Web has changed and we are changing with it!  I've got videos on YouTube as uncomfortable as that is, I'm still hearing from people who've watched my talks on a number of subjects… Midewiwin still happens… And life goes on.

I'm back. And this time I won't shut up :)

Interesting quote:

"Shamans are sometimes considered healers or doctors, but really they are people who deal with the tears and holes we create in the net of life, the damage that we all cause in our search for survival. In a sense, all of us — even the most untechnological, spiritual, and benign peoples — are constantly wrecking the world. The question is: how do we respond to that destruction? If we respond as we do in modern culture, by ignoring the spiritual debt that we create just by living, then that debt will come back to bite us, hard. But there are other ways to respond. One is to try to repay that debt by giving gifts of beauty and praise to the sacred, to the invisible world that gives us life. Shamans deal with the problems that arise when we forget the relationship that exists between us and the other world that feeds us, or when, for whatever reason, we don’t feed the other world in return." - Martín Prechtel

Artwork by Lunar New Year (www.flickr.com/photos/lnylnylny/)

It.has been awhile...

Well it's been a while since I've published anything on this blog but there is so much that has changed…We had a series of open houses for my "new" studio since my last post.  Unfortunately Angeni had the experience of losing the vision in her left eye due to a virus and I was diagnosed on the very same day with a small brain tumour (which is now calcified). Angeni has been seen at Sick Kids hospital a couple of times but they feel that she has permanently lost the vision in the left eye. We are still working with some cutting edge therapies that may in fact prove to be helpful. The doctors feel the virus may either have been from a tick bite or a cat scratch! All the more reason to make sure your family wears long pants and socks when walking through outdoor areas. Anyway that's an issue in process.

Brian and I have started doing some art shows and joined some local artists who are participating in a studio tour for Tiny Township. I am very excited to be opening up our studio to a broader community base.  My next show out is scheduled to be at Sainte Marie among the Hurons for National Aboriginal Day and the weekend which follows NAD. I've been a member of Huronia Foundation for the Arts now for all 5 years that we've lived here, but this is the 1st year I could be extensively involved in shows and gatherings.We hope to participate in the Festval du Loup in July, right here in Lafontaine.  Brian is enjoying his wood turning and after all these years with formal training as a carpenter he is now an emerging artist.

May was a particularly busy month for me as I traveled to Burlington to teach a class on "near-death experience". The next day I traveled to Guelph and again to Kitchener-Waterloo for an alumni gathering of Moonstar Lodge members. We had the opportunity to gather, do ceremony, eat wonderful food, and channel. A couple days later I traveled over to the Goderich area and made some stops to see people along the way...  Last weekend we had our gathering of shamans many of whom have been with us now for nearly 20 years! It was a really exciting weekend and I so enjoy getting together twice a year with this special group of people. This year were planning wedding for one of our members and that's always a precious, rare opportunity to practice traditional ceremonies in a public venue. 

I will get back to using this blog to discuss current issues within parapsychology. Life is settling down a wee bit so I can hopefully attend to this blog on a more regular basis.  Right now a prayer shawl is calling me! I am nearly finished this one and it reminds me of rainbow popcorn.

Have a blessed weekend!

Moody Winter

I was aghast to rise and see winter on the trees, and settled on the lawn... my calendula are covered over in a snowy blanket, so there are no more crops. I bagged the last dry florets today... I'm overcome with that gripping numb reality that says, "snow tires NOW", "get the clothespins in NOW", and who can forget "wipe your feet NOW"...

The first snow is like losing your virginity... You can't say "I didn't like that, so I want to go back a be a virgin again." No matter how unpleasant the experience, you are changed... I'm at the other end of the spectrum. Winter's arrival is like menopause's arrival - cold, hard, fast and not predicted. My emotional landscape is covered in some schizophrenic crap and I easily fall and slip in it.

Like tonight. So not a stellar night to be writing anything the world will read. Except to say a dear friend, while visiting on the weekend, suggested I have too many spatulas. I countered that not all of them are for the same purpose, and I am writing a cookbook - all kitchen tools are on deck these days. She didn't believe me... she thinks I'm hoarding spatulas. Weird Al Yankovic and I are maybe the only people in the world who appreciate spatulas - he pays homage to them in a video where the protagonist goes to spatula world.

Maybe it's not menopause after all... maybe it's the attack on my culinary tool collection. I suggested I might take some spatulas up to the bedroom - isn't that a novel usage? My visiting friend just laughs at me, and says she misses my humour. Good thing she lives far away when I've slipped on my hormonal nightmare and landed in the sewage.

However, my husband, who turned 61 today, is knee-deep in the menopausal morass.

I promise I will get back to all things paranormal in a couple of days - really, I promise! :)  I would rather speak about the Ontario Multifaith Committee (OMC) conference I just attended on the weekend...  It was, as always, highly impactful and nourishing for my soul.  It amazes me how savvy and connected people can be when they have a common agenda.  In this instance the OMC mandate covers their responsibility to oversee that the spiritual needs of inmates in prisons (and to some degree other government institutions) are honoured and protected.  Even in Canada there are gross violations of human rights and spiritual/creed laws.  So the fact that OMC has lost its funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services became another tangent of the bonding, common agenda under which we operate.  The conference food is fair, the accommodations are spartan, but the spiritual dynamism is so inspiring and rich nourishment that is hard to surpass.  I am a better person for the effort to attend.

On Tuesday evening I came home to find a cheque waiting in the mail - a cheque from a friend who knows we are hurting, and needing some money to get us through to the open houses later this month.  I am humbled by her words of support as much as the money.  It validates that moving back into my original direction (Moonstar Lodge) is the correct thing to do...  I studied hard and long to be a medium, healer and shaman.  To that end, I find great comfort in returning full time to this part of my walk on the red road. I love talking to the "spooks" (my affectionate term of endearment), and seeing beyond the limitations of my human eyes and imagination.  See?  This is bordering on references to the paranormal.

One of the only downturns to this week, as we prepare to do some drum-making with highschool kids, is that I'm forced to withdraw from my fibromyalgia medication, due to the cost and the side effects.  I have nothing left to use, except acetaminophen, which really does nothing anymore.  The act of withdrawal means my head aches, I'm nauseated, knees, ankles and feet are swollen, and I am in pain.  Big time.  Not a happy week.  The dizziness and palpitations are better today than yesterday, and I am sleeping, so that helps.  It will be better by the weekend, I pray.

Well, I have to get back to my other work, so see you soon!  Blessings, Kat

Not getting a lot of sleep lately...  pneumonia for the last two weeks, and my fibro med has the lovely side effect of insomnia...  So as it approaches 4 AM on this surprisingly warm night, I am going to keep my promise and attempt to recount some of my ghost hunting tales...

My experiences of spirits started as a small child, long before I knew what a "ghost" was...  apparently my mother was aware of a spirit standing over my crib, in the brand new house she had built for her in Guelph.  She didn't know who this might be, so she trundled down Victoria Rd to the York Rd Baptist Church (later to become the Triangle Photo Centre) and talked to the minister there...  He visited and being psychic, proclaimed it was her mother!  My grandmother Rose died when I was not quite ten 11 months old.  My father, whose drinking was escalating,  was at times very violent.  He couldn't hold a job for long, so my younger sister Judy and I were often left in his care while my mother went to work at the local hospital.  When his mood turned violent, I would ask the angels (who I saw quite clearly, and assumed everyone else did) to help me hide.  The directed me to closets and behind the furnace and I remained safe.  In grade school my mediumistic predilections were noticed by neighbours, and some would have the gall to take me downtown to Woolworth's (on the bus) on the pretext of having a sundae or a muffin.  What I learned, sadly, was that they wanted to get me away from my mother to pump me for future-based information.  I was not very old before I became guarded about this whole psychic thing.  I did do a speech at school on Bluenose Ghosts, after a family trip down east in 1966 - I got an award!

By my teens I was totally turned off - I loved reading and studying about ghosts, and even advanced my skills, but not for the purpose of letting people know.  I struggled with my concept of death and God - it created a terrible stress for me, when the Presbyterian Church was a huge part of our family life.  I drifted toward Spiritualism, and began visiting the Spiritualist Church in Brantford.  There were two pivotal events in highschool that haunted me for years - the death of a classmate, which I foretold in September, and the death of a teacher the next year.  I will continue my story as it appears I have run out of room for this blog entry!

Wowee pneumonia sucks!  I have so much to do today to get through the end of the week and prepping for the shows...  I hate when my body doesn't co-operate with my mind.  The open houses are just a month away, and in the meantime I have the Ontario Multifaith Council conference to attend and drum making at the local highschool over a two-day period all before the open houses....  We are doing these for the first time in many years, and absolutely the first time in Lafontaine.  The dates we've chosen are Saturdays Nov. 17, 24, Dec. 1 &2, 8 and 15.  The Dec. 1 & 2 days are the "big" open house, lasting for the weekend, and we have guest artists arriving...  Thankfully Angeni has Nov. 16th off of school so she can help us set up for the first Saturday we're open.

Brian is making drums over the next couple of weeks so they have time to "cure" and then I do some artistic designs on them.  I've been knitting hat and scarf sets, prayer shawls, shrugs, and sweaters.  I have quilts and jewelry - both native and sacred designs.  There are dolls and bears, native cosmetics and sacred medicines.- lots of different odds and sods.  I'm proud of the work we've done.

In the meantime I guess I have to be patient with myself and allow myself to heal.  The antibiotics are NOT pleasant, but I will persevere

I'm too tired to write more...  Have a blessed day!  Kathryn.

So I am pushing myself to bring up a topic that causes great angst in my life, and the lives of many aboriginal people - "lateral violence".  What is it?  It's known by a number of names:
• work place bullying
• horizontal hostilities/violence
• internalized colonialism
• relational aggression

I have included a link to a very short, but totally valuable commentary on the subject by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC):
http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/reportsboriginalLateralViolence%20-%20web%20version.pdf

Here is another comment:  “ When a powerful oppressor has directed oppression against a group for a
period of time, members of the oppressed group feel powerless to fight back and they eventually turn
their anger against each other.” – Jane Middleton-Moz

I have worked for private corporations, provincial ministries, hospitals, corrections, the literacy community, and ultimately for no one but myself.  The perpetrators of lateral violence have most often crept up in the public sector jobs we've had - by both our staff peers and management.  I am still recovering emotionally from physical and emotional abuse experiences that happened in childhood, but also from the extreme personal devastation of experiencing this lateral violence in the workplace.  It actually emanated from aboriginal employees who live within the community, and 2 local aboriginal agencies which coveted the contract we received...  Everything was questioned - our "nativeness", our spirituality, our teachers, our traditions, our lifestyle, and even the fact that we are Elders.  This went on for almost 5 years - we gave up the farm and our animals to come here for the contract we were given, and are forever grateful for the experience of living here...  We worked hard to create a great home for our daughter, and not sacrifice too much of what we are intrinsically, as individuals.  The financial reward was wonderful.  The friends we amazing resilient people.

Neither Brian nor I consider ourselves victims.  Not at all.  From a spiritual perspective, we bring to us experiences we need to learn from, and can possibly be "agents of change'.  In this instance, I think we were not agents of change at least not at the local level.  One of our chaplain friends very succinctly put it that "the dark side won".  The lessons were ours to learn - we shone in our job and got exemplary reviews, but we were too "nice" and did not always build clear boundaries.  We did not want management to see us as the same "nasty Indians" they were used to working with - so we were people who pretty much always turned the other cheek.  Nice guys often do finish last.  However, I would NOT stoop to the level of the agencies and people who were purposely hostile.  It is important to acknowledge that while we have been plunged into unemployment, we still have our spirits and souls intact.  The bruising has not yet gone away.

So we are looking at spiritual institutions and other public agencies who do "good" work.  These are the people savvy in the ways of working with employers who don't know how to ameliorate lateral violence.  I do not want a pound of flesh - I just don't want this to continue happening to us personally, and the First Nations, Inuit and Metis people of Canada.  I have asked for divine guidance, and my gnostic conscious self knows that some how, some way, the right thing will happen and ultimately the dark side will have lost this one...  I have enough Mohawk in me to still be a spiritual warrior, albeit a tired one.

In the meantime Brian and I are having a great time refocusing on our art and spiritual careers.  Our open houses are looming and I will be in the company of my spiritual peers in a couple of weeks.  it's all good and I am mostly at peace.

Sleep well friends.

New day - we had such wild weather yesterday and through the night!  Snow, hail, rain and winds gusting to 70 kph.  I'm surprised all the flowers haven't wilted!  We have some sage to finish harvesting, and that needs to happen soon or it will be mush.  I thought David Phillips of Environment Canada said this would be a long, warmer-than-average autumn season.  He has been so wrong!  It's been colder and certainly wetter than I think it should be for early October.  Maybe I'm spoiled from the long, hot summer...

I'm playing with an Apple iPad that was loaned to me for a few months.  I'm comparing it with the Blackberry Playbook I own...  so far I find that the BB will play any Youtube video I've wanted to see, but the iPad does not.  That's the only strike against it so far...  it certainly charges quickly and has a plethora of "apps".  Once I figure out the design software, I'll have a better notion.  We've never had Apple products in this home, so it certainly is a unique learning curve!

My scarf and hat sets are taking shape...  I'm also gearing up to use my SK 150/151 knitting machine/ribber combo again.  I haven't touched it in at least 18 years, so reading the instruction book is like attempting to read gibberish.  I am trying to reframe my distress at forgetting so much about the damned machine.  I love making yardages of knit fabric, then cutting and sewing/serging clothing.  Otherwise it is limiting - I don't hand knit as fast as I machine knit, but I find that if you are doing any sort of patterning or cabling, the knitting machine is slower...  I have some new designs in my head for knitwear and I'm a bit stalled with the creation of same.  It will come...  I've never been known for my patience.  :)  I do need a kick in the proverbial pants when it comes to making some chakra healing jewellery.  My head isn't there right now at all.

As for spiritual musings, I am thankful for my angels today.  I am feeling much gratitude for the clarity and the ease of the physical pain in my head and legs.  People are asking me what I think about the Mayan calendar and the "end" of time on Dec. 21st...  I for one, am having a winter solstice party on Dec. 21st - it arrives just after 6 AM, so I won't warm the canapes until we see what happens.  Just joking there...  I believe that this is a shifting of consciousness time, rather than an end of the physical world.  My guides and teachers have said nothing to me of apocalypses or other calamitous events on or around that date.  When you educate and elevate a core group within a larger  group, the rest of the larger group start to follow along (even with resistance).  Corporate structures bank on this paradigm.  I think winter solstice and the end of the Mayan calendar is about spiritual elevation within humanity.  That being said, archeologists have found information that suggests the calendar doesn't end for a few hundred years.  I guess we shall see!

Blessings friends on this blustery day.

Been awhile....

A lot has happened for Brian and I this past 16 months...  He was diagnosed with cancer in June 2011 and had bowel/rectal cancer surgery in August 2011.  It took quite a while to recover from completely.  Then we were unsuccessful in getting the contract back at CNCC (a superjail in Penetanguishene)...  From there Brian waited for open heart surgery.  It was very painful and agonizing watching him go through the physical decline of ihs heart issues, while grieving the loss of our employment.  Once the surgery happened in August, we've gone through hell again as he recovered this time.  And he is still recovering - every day gets a little better...

Despite everything that has gone on, we've still managed to dream with the medicine wheel.  It is important to recreate ourselves.  As the summer moves into autumn, we are beginning to embrace the gift we've been given - the opportunity to return to activities we love and enjoy! 

• We've done some teaching in the community.  
• There has been time to rebuild and finish our respective studios.
• We are planning a series of open studio days in November and December.
• I am channeling again for people - particularly enjoying doing so on Skype.
• I am designing some fabulous knitwear.
• Writing, writing, writing - I'm planning a book on psychospiritual development.  I'm beginning to connect with publishers.

We see this time as the necessary "kick in the pants" to get us going with what we really love.  The surgeries remind us both that this third dimensional life is limited, and there is no time like the present to do what we love and are good at!!  Why wait?

Blogging is an important part of this process.  I hope I can be more available to keep this blog up-to-date.  There is nothing I love more than talking about spiritual issues and textile design.  So that is what I intend to direct this blog into - with the odd tangent.  Let me know what you'd like me to address and I'll do my best to chat on these subjects.

Blessings to everyone on this wild weather, autumn day!

Heartbreaking news....

I am mortified to share that my little sister, Judy Coddington, died of unknown causes on Nov. 25th... It took everything I could muster to do her eulogy this past Saturday... Here is her obituary...

Coddington, Judy - of Sauble Beach, suddenly at Grey Bruce Health Services Wiarton on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009. The former Judy Arlene Gorman at the age of 50 years. Loving wife and best friend of Brad. Devoted mother of Natalie Lamb, of Owen Sound, Melanie Lamb and Jamie Lamb (friend Kristin), all of Guelph. Cherished Gramma to Benjamin and Jerry. Judy will be sadly missed by her sister Rev. Kathryn Gorman-Lovelady (Brian), of Penetanguishene; brothers-in-law; sisters-in-law; nieces; nephews; and many good friends. Predeceased by her parents Gerald and Beulah Gorman; and her father-in-law and mother-in-law Clifford and Audrey Coddington. Friends are invited to gather with the family to share memories during a time of visitation at the Thomas C. Whitcroft Funeral Home & Chapel, Sauble Beach (519) 422-0041 on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 from 2-3 pm, where a service to celebrate Judy's life will be conducted from the chapel at 3 o'clock. Cremation to follow. Donations to the Arthritis Society would be appreciated.

Judy Coddington
1959 - 2009

I didn't find out she was dead until nearly noon on Thursday... I am still in a state of shock... I went back to work today because I needed to be busy and stay on top of my work obligations.

It changes how I am approaching Christmas... As we move into this blessed season, I wish all my friends and extended family the best that the Creator shares with us. Happy December.

8 months since I last wrote!! Ooooppss... We had the same weird, brief summer that everyone else did... No travel, just some weeks off to work around the house. Angeni is growing like a weed - she's 5' 8" now, and looks like she should be in university rather that grade 6...

We're down a cat... Dear silly Bob was killed back on April 2nd. We miss the little buggar. No other new pets, although I'm still interested and researching yorkie-poos like Pooky was... I was remembering her on Oct. 30th, which was her birthday. We cannot have another dog without a kennel licence, so we cannot get another yorkie-poo until one of our other dogs has passed.

Work goes well. There are new and improved resources for the aboriginal inmates, and it looks like our community partners are coming on board to help us. As our duties increase, our time on the floor decreases, so it is important to have community support volunteers to assist with the existing circles. We have the opportunity to expand things greatly but only with enough bodies to fill the support roles... October was a busy month of travelling. I managed nearly a week in North Bay for a NILO conference, and just this week returned from Jackson's Point. There I participated in an Ontario Multifaith Council conference.

In the meantime, we didn't do medicine wheel gardens here at home, but did manage some wonderful gardens around the front of the house. There was a lot of reconstruction of the yard as well as the house, so we couldn't do much with medicine gardens. We did have one at the jail. So much renovation, though... a new roof, insulation of the basement, new windows and double doors. Also, another fireplace in my studio, new walls in the studio and new drywall in the garage. The floors in the upstairs are all replaced and the "other" bedroom is now a beautiful wolf den, ready for guests with a fireplace. The library, now finished, is a wonderful resting area, and Brian finished that bathroom... Now it is my studio that remains to be plastered and painted... When it is finally all complete I will have a comfortable, neat place to work. Right now I'm in my jewellery making mode. It's what appeals to my creative self...

Guess that's all for now... Have a good November!!

Wow... I could have had a V8

Okay, so I've been away from this for awhile... Lots happening in my life, but I have no excuse for neglecting this blog... It's my birthday today, so I thought I'd clean things up.

Our work is going well, and we're doing a lot of programs with the aboriginal offenders. We've connected in a meaningful way with the aboriginal community and I look forward to participating in local art shows this spring. I'm hoping to have my own open house this summer.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the renovations of the house - thankfully. We're down to the "lipstick and mascara" to quote Mike Holmes. Peaches the chihuahua is doing a great job of becoming the party dog of the house... Less than a year ago she was a snarling feral runaway. Now she is a bed snuggler and slipper thief. And she likes her special outfits - bathing suit, dressing gown, tutu, and other canine fashion statements. Spunky, Max and Starr are doing their usual thing, although they miss the 50 acres.

Speaking of Durham, that property finally sold in late November and all the running back and forth kept us really busy. We finally are getting out from under the debt load, and I'm thankful for that... Angeni was really missing her old school, but this year is fully adapted to life in Penetang - she even joined the school council.

I spent some rough days last month in hospital with ruptured ovarian cysts - ouch. The problem continues, and we're monitoring it. I don't relish peritonitis and I dislike the headache and nausea. Movement is difficult when the acute abdomen develops. However I didn't miss much work, and I assume this will ebb with menopause. I've resumed knitting socks when I'm housebound, and that's a fun thing to do when I'm not feeling great.

It's coming up to the 7th anniversary of my mother's passing... I think about her a lot. It amazes me how much processing of the mother-daughter relationship I've done... It will be 2 years since Pooky died (in June) and I miss her desperately... A different relationship but just as dear. Now, one of my peers is leaving for San Diego, and I will miss her... Life is precious.

Brian is well. He put on a belly when he stopped doing the farm chores last year. His response is a Pilate's/yoga class that both he and Angeni seem to be enjoying. He's lost 10 pounds in less than 2 months, without changing his diet, just doing the class weekly. Interestingly, the township postponed one Monday night because of "Family Day" last month and he really noticed it, and missed it. Strength and balance at its finest.

All in all a good start to 2009. A great birthday today... A wonderful life...

Welllllll...

What a summer and what a September!! Been in a car accident, almost sold my house twice and did a professional development seminar... Our new house has heat and A/C now as of today, and we're about a month away from getting some furniture. The studio is done after many months of hard work and I've resumed my sewing. I'm pooped. It's autumn equinox today, so we're half-way to winter...

Peaches continues to expand her people skills. We took her to the beach on the leash a few times, and she seemed to relish the walking. Her leach skills are good, but she can still escape through 2 layers of sheep fence. Escape artist extraordinaire. The rest of the animals are fine...

Angeni is enjoying another year with a favourite teacher in the new school in Penetang. She is in a 5/6 split, so that is stimulating for her to work at the level of the older kids. She grew about 3" over the summer after many weeks in day camp. She had more adventures in one summer than I've had in a lifetime.

Summer zooms by...

Been a long time since I posted - haven't abandoned the blog, just settling in and renovating takes all the time we have outside of work. The studio is within sight, but not quite complete. New windows and doors are being installed and we have to get the heating thing sorted out yet. I won't be on electric heat for another winter.... The Durham house is still for sale, but all the reno's there are done.

Angeni is enjoying the Tiny Twp camp and is entering her 6th week of it... given the long weekend we're just completing, this is a short week. She turns 10 next Monday!!! What a decade!!!

Peaches is grooving along, and would be a model dog except for the urinary incontinence. I think her spaying was problematic, as this isn't really healing. All the other animals are doing fine...

To end this glorious long weekend we're having a family camp fire in the yard... time to go get that started.

Settling In...

Not settling for... Hmmm. That sounds cranky, but it isn't meant to be... Rather, I am making sure that how I move in here reflects what I want and how I want the place the be... We're still without heat in about 40% of the main floor, so I can't set up my work room. It's still too cold out there.

I'm struggling with an abscessed tooth and the horror of walking pneumonia. I've taken today and tomorrow off work to allow me to heal. Other than a funding proposal to finish, I am caught up. I'm involved in prepping for a National Aboriginal Day celebration, so we can present the institution with a painting by Eve Dexter of white buffalo. Finding dignitaries to participate, and native dancers, is a trick. And expensive. We'll see how it pans out.

We're working specifically on the library and office. The office is 90% done, while the library is maybe 70% done. We need to purchase some more bookshelves and finish installing the electric fireplace to make it complete. It looks quite spiffy in there, actually. There is an adjoining bathroom - sink and toilet only - which we've managed to make look quite grand. As we separate out the stuff for a garage sale I'm amazed at what I can now let go of - solid pine end tables made in 1977 by my first husband, dressers, all our Ikea furniture, lamps, kitchen overflow and just incredible amounts of stuff. It's like an archaeological timetable of my life. I am able to let it all go.... Good, healthy stuff. There is a sense of relief, actually, it just letting things go... maybe I'm becoming Buddhist? Nah, I like jewellery too much.

Angeni is finally accepting of her new school in Penetang. This is a much anticipated adjustment. She still sees the kids she left behind as her 'best" friends, yet they don't communicate at all. The dogs have not adapted to their confinement in the small yard. The dog control officer told us of complaints he's received, so we have to tie them up until we can fence the yard. Better to be good neighbours than have happy dogs.

Better get back at it - the office won't be right until I finish it.

Long time coming...

It's Sunday March 9th, a week after my 51st birthday, and I'm chilling to Pink Floyd... I apologize for the loooonnnnggg time away from this blog. At the last entry we'd been to work for two weeks and dealing with extreme financial and moving stresses. I get huge numbers of emails every day, although who these emails come from has changed... few clients and more work-related tomes. So let me catch up on what has happened... These won't be in any particular order, just as they come to mind...

My lovely Nonny had to be euthanized on Monday, Feb. 25th. She had developed lung cancer, after her kitty mastectomy last June (the week Pooky died). She was cognizant of who we were, and even in weakness meowed her recognition and purred on my pillow... I had Nonny almost 17 years. She goes back to the early days when I lived with Fred. I chose her from amongst a group of new kittens at the KW animal shelter. At 6 weeks old, she was sitting there, like the Sphinx, with other younger kittens crawling all over her. To say she was mellow was an understatement. Nonny never got caught up in the household cat/dog hierarchy. Ethol, her original house mate was always "The Quoon" and kept everyone in their place. Even after Ethol passed in December 2005, it was Zuna who took over the crown. Nonny was just herself. I called her Nonny Monster, but she was always the antithesis of a monster. She was much-loved and is much-missed.

Angeni started school in Penetang on January 7th. I really like her teacher, Mrs. Ball, who watches her interactions and doesn't pressure Angeni. Mrs. Ball has a wisdom and gentle approach that Angeni needs. Slowly she is making friends - this coming March break week Angeni is going to a day camp run by the community, so there is more opportunity to meet her friends and simply play. There were a lot of tears the first couple of months, but now we see more relaxation and laughter. It was clearly very hard for Angeni to give up the only home she ever remembered. She is resilient, in the face of all the changes.

We've moved in, more or less, to this new home. There are parts of it without heat, so Brian and Del are moving forward on a boiler system to replace the electric baseboard heat we now have. There is propane here for a faux fireplace, and the hot-water heater, so we have the opportunity to go all-gas. I smell a joke in that statement, but I won't go there.... Anyway, I miss my studio space, and until the heat is in the large room on the west of the house, I can't set up my sewing or knitting machines. What I notice I miss the most right now, is making jewelery. That surprised me, when it bubbled up from my subconscious. Soon, within the next month, I should be functional in the studio - this will help me feel more settled. Of everyone in the family I am the least settled. While I miss Durham for the space and peace, I relish being close to the water. But I won't be "here" until every last box is completely unpacked.

I guess this is enough of an update for today... While it should be a sleepy Sunday, Brian has been plowing the yard for 3 hours now, and it is lunchtime. He's got his tractor back, so he's still tractor dude. If the old tractor could run on testosterone, we'd be set - Brian's reaction to the tractor is similar to "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" - grunt, grunt, grunt. Boys and their toys.

Have a blessed week, and maybe spring will peak through shortly!!