Dear friends and family,

This year I resolved to get a Christmas / New Year communication off before mid-January. It is my prayer for each of you that this find you in good health and enjoying all the blessings of our God, each in ways that meet your needs at this time in your lives

Today I am meeting my deadlines to make things that are intended as gifts from FF clients. That means I have nearly one week to get my own things in order. I have made the decision to not decorate the house. I used to do so, but my resolve to not give SaskPower one penny more than necessary, had me cut out lights some years back, and more recently, I also leave other decorations in the boxes. During daylight hours a simple glance out of any of my windows provides me of my visitors with a more breathtaking view than any picture card I have ever seen. If you are a visitor to my web site at www.friendlyforest.ca You will have seen the ever changing images of the forest home in which I reside.

I will be hosting a Christmas Day meal for friends and then hope to travel out to Watson to see family shortly after. I am not sure yet just what day that will be. 

Another member of my Friendly Forest family is King. Although he is past 12 years of age by the best reckoning, he still has good health and is a constant source of joy for me. He shows his advancing age most by being ready to quit chasing ball sooner than in the past. For those who know him and have experienced his own version of welcome at Friendly Forest. I am sure that he would wish you the best of the holiday period as well.

During the past 12 months I have learned a lot about care for seniors with disabilities. Last Christmas my friend Bob King was in the hospital with two broken legs. He survived that critical time, and was back in a private care home until he was accepted at Mount St. Joseph Home in April. I eventually had the responsibility to clearing out his house and putting it up for sale. Since Bob was still living independently until his fall off a bicycle in October, his house was simply the home he lived in and had not been organized or cleaned for sale. That was an eye-opening experience for me, and makes me cringe at the prospect of anyone having to do the same kind of cleaning and dispersal on my behalf in the future. I had been given enduring power of attorney for Bob’s affairs some years back, but actually letting go and allowing me to really act in his stead was very difficult for Bob ... and in turn, difficult for me. I won’t go into any details.

I have continued to work at my wood art though I am slowing down a bit. For one thing, I am taking time to make a few nice pieces for myself and I appreciate these additions to my home. I also realize that I have never made any money at what I do, and doing things in a manner that creates stress rather than enjoyment does not make any sense at all in these circumstances. I recognize that the sale of my earlier work has afforded me the opportunity to build my skills and try new things that I would likely not have undertaken otherwise. My philosophy has been: “I need to sell my old mistakes so I can afford to make new ones.” That has really been quite an accurate statement of my situation. As I reviewed my images from the past year I remind even myself of the many things I have undertaken in a relatively short time.

I made “stuff” , in wood, in leather and with beads, things profane and things sacred.

I found a clump of 9 Western Red Lilly blossoms on a single stem. I found that I could not afford to drive my truck all the time, and financed a small VW Golf that gives me three times the road miles per litre compared to my faithful truck. I set up a traditional camp at the East Gate of the Sacred Hoop Trail I made in the forest. I did a four-day Spring fast in April when the Sacred Hoop Trail was blessed, and enjoyed another four days of special celebration in June at the time of full moon and summer solstice to just celebrate what the Hoop has come to mean in my spiritual life. I especially thank my friends who came out to pray with me and who celebrated with me at those special times.

My process of learning new ways of prayer has also recently brought me to praying with Sweat Lodge Ceremony prayer.

I took time during our rather cold and wet summer to collect medicinal herbs from the land and patiently dried them and stored them away for future use. I also shared my collection with friends who use these same gifts from the earth. Earlier this week I used some to make a new batch of traditional cansasa / traditional tobacco, and also a new batch of my incense for use in smudge prayer.

I continue with our local inter-denominational scripture study group and still do my part in our local Catholic parish community.

I have had the thought that if it is true that mongrel dogs tend to be stronger and healthier than pure-breed dogs, perhaps it is also true about the spiritual life of a person. I certainly have a “mongrel’ spiritual heritage; the Judeo-Christian, Catholic, Benedictine, Dakota, and now Dene, spirituality and prayer forms; each has contributed a great deal to helping me connect to the Creator who made me and abides with me each moment of my life. Each spiritual tradition is rooted in a culture, and each tradition has wonderful ways of expressing the connections ancient peoples had with their God. What is ancient is also new and available in my life now.

I continue to support provincial Green politics. Recently I agreed to fill a vacancy until the spring as Vice President of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, and I continue as the web master of our official web site, http://www.greenpartysask.ca I still have the old site going, and along with my Friendly Forest site, I maintain three web sites. That actually takes a lot of my time. The Green Party of Saskatchewan site is actually a merging and revamping of our two former sites, the votenga.ca site and the nga.sk.ca site. Both of these sites will be discontinued in the new year. I have to go through a lot of email and information articles to try to keep the political site up to date. We do have quite a few site visitors and I am told that at the U of Regina, professors and students say that our site is the best of all the political sites in Saskatchewan, echoing what the media said during the last election in 2003. I am a total amateur with no formal training in this stuff, so I am rather proud of that compliment. Perhaps if I had the training professional site developers have I could do it with less effort, and also get paid for the effort. It has been a good learning experience, and our Party really did need someone to do the job for free.

I have been doing a lot of reading. Much of it has been about traditional spirituality and ceremony, history books, plant medicine and plant identifications, and what-ever else caught my interest over the past year. After so many years of having time to read only what I needed to read for the job, it is a great pleasure to be able to read for my own information and enjoyment.

This winter I will try my hand at some more bead work. Last winter my efforts largely proved a Cree elder’s words true when she said I could never learn how to do bead work. However, if you know me at all, you know that someone telling me I can’t do something is a challenge, and I either have to prove them wrong or right by my own efforts. I do have two pair of beaded moccasins, a beaded tobacco pouch and a few other items that vividly show my limited progress in the art. I tried my hand at making ceremonial rattles, and now that work is used by half a dozen traditional medicine people. I keep being told that I need to acquire or learn traditional songs for ceremonial prayers. I protest that if Creator had wanted me to sing in Dakota or Dene I would have been given a good singing voice and I would likely have been born into one or both of those cultures so I could learn the language ... or at least I would have been given the capacity to learn those languages. Time will see what, if anything, develops in that line. I figure that if a sacred song is used to call on the presence of various of Creator’s Spirits, then the voice should sound inviting and not be such that it frightens man, beast and spirit away.

When people ask me how I am doing, my standard reply, which seems more true each time I express it, is: “Much better than I deserve, and I deserve a great deal!” My year and my life have been blessed, and it is my prayer that the same be true for you and all those you love.

Gerald, at Friendly Forest

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