I read and reviewed Carll Goodpasture's book "Imagining Place" and am now reading Mike McNally's new release, "Honoring Elders". I shall submit both reviews to Baiki. I am also sending a poem. Carll's book inspired the poem. Mike mentions one of my poems in his book. Maybe I will submit that with the review. So I've been reading until my eyes bulge then I haul wood until my muscles bulge. It's been pretty wet here but it takes a lot of rain to refill the Minnesota lakes that get depleted during the summer. I may include the following in my review of "Honoring Elders". Blog friends will read it first.
I was sitting in the car with my mother and Larry Cloud Morgan at the Inger pow-wow several years ago. They were both living with diabetes and enduring dialysis. Larry leaned toward the front seat so he could talk to us. At first we exchanged funny stories and laughed heartily. Then Mom told us that when her life became so compromised that it wasn't worth living she was going to refuse treatment, enter a coma and die. To me she said, "All you have to do is honor my decision. Let me die with dignity." I kept that promise. After a long silence Larry told us that when he reached that point on his journey he prayed for courage to do likewise. They both came to that end.
Today as I prepared a lunch of tea and toast I thought it strange to be content with so little. Not strange really, but bizarre. It is both quite peculiar and extremely normal. When I was a little girl I lived with my grandparents at 607 E Franklin Av, Mpls. Sometimes Grandma Vanoss and I had nothing but tea and toast. If there was fruit she gave it to me. There were times when Grandpa and I enjoyed a late bowl of 'graveyard stew'. I laughed at the funny name and thought it was a special treat grandfathers shared with granddaughters while other people slept. It was much later, after he had died, that I realized he ate warm milk over toast because cancer had ruined his stomach.
I was sitting in the car with my mother and Larry Cloud Morgan at the Inger pow-wow several years ago. They were both living with diabetes and enduring dialysis. Larry leaned toward the front seat so he could talk to us. At first we exchanged funny stories and laughed heartily. Then Mom told us that when her life became so compromised that it wasn't worth living she was going to refuse treatment, enter a coma and die. To me she said, "All you have to do is honor my decision. Let me die with dignity." I kept that promise. After a long silence Larry told us that when he reached that point on his journey he prayed for courage to do likewise. They both came to that end.
Today as I prepared a lunch of tea and toast I thought it strange to be content with so little. Not strange really, but bizarre. It is both quite peculiar and extremely normal. When I was a little girl I lived with my grandparents at 607 E Franklin Av, Mpls. Sometimes Grandma Vanoss and I had nothing but tea and toast. If there was fruit she gave it to me. There were times when Grandpa and I enjoyed a late bowl of 'graveyard stew'. I laughed at the funny name and thought it was a special treat grandfathers shared with granddaughters while other people slept. It was much later, after he had died, that I realized he ate warm milk over toast because cancer had ruined his stomach.
No comments:
Post a Comment