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I look at Judy Martin's   Judy's Journal.blogspot.com.  She shows me the work of Nadia Myre,  a woman of mixed Algonquin and French Canadian heritage.

heritage.

a collapsed basket.    "Nadia Myre's  deep respect or and committment to the act of making things by hand is evident as she explores the politics o identity and belonging through poetic,  feminist backdrops of craft, care and resilience."

identity

belonging

heritage

Emrie and i spend the day.  

i am learning the way of the death doula.   Simply because of living among the living.  Some of whom become dead.  so far,  4 human beings,  5 dogs,  3 Goats,  4,  .

we hear Goat voices,  one might be of TenZen.  We listen but just listen for a while,  but then feel the need to go and look.  No…he is ok.  Lying upright at his gate but the comotion of us going down there,  the noise of the whole herd wanting feed causes him to try to stand.  He can't and falls.  His legs move in the air.  To  no avail.  He cannot right himself.  I tell Emrie in a stern voice not much used ,  to Stay There!   at the outside of his gate.  She does and watches.  I am surprised that she senses the situation.  She does.  I move the gate slowly against his head enough to squeeze through and then latch it with the bungie cord,  move around and lift him to standing and straddle him some long moments until he gets his bearings.  We continue to Feed.  Her carrying small handfulls.

She plays in pots of water.  I wash underwear by hand in the sink and hang it from the Morning Tree to dry,  the same tree that serves to stage the small concert of the song bird.  We listen and sing back the best we can in it's own language


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we sorted through scraps.  She likes to smell them.  and then lift them to my nose.   ?????  

heritage.

identity

belonging

i have none.  for my Self   that i can call on.  Other than what i know of the creek and earth from my 5th year on.  

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4 responses to “heritage”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    but you do…maybe not in the familial sense although your pickle recipe is part of your heritage but more than that I think of your love of the earth, how since the age of 5, you have felt the deep connection. You used to sign off on emails as Polvadera, substation, lizard clan…the word heritage has the word Her in it. You may feel as if you are the death doula but you are also the doula of what lives in, on and around the earth: your knowledge, wonder, love, caring and reverence for our planet is Emrie’s heritage, from you to Her – HERitage.

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  2. Liz A Avatar

    The “her” in heritage … an antidote to the “his” of history perhaps … my daughter is taking a college history course and I was delighted to learn that her readings include a slave narrative written by a woman and the archeological findings at the Cahokia Indian Mounds.

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  3. Liz A Avatar

    I had a sense of the word “doula,” but looked it up on m-w.com to be sure and found:
    “a person trained to provide advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort”
    One could do worse than to be a death doula, I think. In a world where we are all so inexperienced at being in the presence of death, it helps to have someone who can be a doula for us. Hospice is a wonderful example of that. You are yet another …

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  4. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    I am reminded of the last days of my first ever Dog. Rusty. He was old when he came to us. A big dog-125 in his prime. A rescue at 12. Lame. We could only go to the mailbox and back–that was as far as he could go. Thinking of those days-that last night-the kindness and care given at the Vet place. The whole of them crying with us. To be there to give assistance and love–it is the most important work you do.
    Her. It. Age. Love to you, dear one.

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