All posts filed under: Family

Rethinking Suicide

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Today is my dad’s birthday. He would be 73 years old, except that he took his own life in 1982 after a lifelong struggle with depression and loneliness. Suicide is a complex and painful issue confronting our society in higher and higher numbers. The World Health Organization estimates that almost 800,000 people die by suicide globally each year. While suicide is often seen as a mental health issue, it is, in fact, a very complex problem with multiple variants and causes, including genetics, mental health, socio-economic status, physical health, and cultural identity. I want to take a moment to talk about suicide from the perspective of a survivor of someone who has lived through the loss of a suicide and as a person who has lived with the demons of depression and self-harm since adolescence. My own story. I’m committed to ending the stigma around suicide, mental illness and to raising awareness about the loneliness epidemic and the need for true human connection.  So, in the spirit of transparency, I’m gonna spill the beans here. …

I’m voting for her.

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As I sat on Election night of 2016, with my mom and sister on the phone, looking at a bleak future, all I could think of was the 40 years of Work that Mom and the rest of the environmental community had done, all of the sacrifices the families of those doing The Work had made and the gains we had received as a society, were in jeopardy. My Mom’s legacy was in jeopardy.

Stone by Stone: Burying an activist, community builder, wife and mother.

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We buried mom on Thursday Thor’s Day, God of Thunder Ruled by Jupiter and Sagittarius Fitting for the Warrior she was Dragon Lady Defender of Earth Her body, dressed in the splendid purple silk Autumn bought her years ago and Unpolluted by fluids meant to preserve her flesh Laid to rest in a simple pine casket Handcrafted by a Colville man Lined with a Pendleton blanket A cedar filled pillow for her beautiful brain to rest on Tucked into her time capsule were special stones Her feather and staff and The dragon box she cherished, filled with farewell notes of love and gratitude   Her community gathered Friends, allies and Hearts filled with gratitude for her tireless optimism in the fight for Justice They spoke of her journalism Her quest for Truth Her penchant for framing conversations in a way that can be heard by those in power Her commitment to Community, also Barter Fair committees, the Tonasket Co-op, the Tonasket Community Cultural Center, Annual International Mother’s Day March for Peace The list goes on: …

Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain!

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Today is one of the oldest and holiest holidays in the Celtic tradition. Halloween or Samhain (sah-ween) is the time when we honor the harvest, the end of summer. It is this time when the veils between the spirit world and the physical world are thinnest. We decorate our homes with symbols of the harvest, carve faces into pumpkins, inviting in their lively spirits; and don costumes of ghoulish beasts to remind ourselves of death and to make it seem just a little less scary. We remember our dead and give thanks to be alive.                   Some seek communion with loved ones, others guidance from the ancient ones, and many quietly memorialize their dead with small remembrances and prayers. We are our great grandmothers and great grandfathers, they are in our bones, our eyes, our DNA. To honour them is to honour our bodies and our lives, to remember that from which we came and to give thanks for the bounty we are blessed with. This is the night when the gateway between  our world and the spirit world is thinnest.  Tonight is a night to call out those who came before. Tonight I honor my ancestors. Spirits of my fathers and mothers, I call to you, and welcome you to join me for this night. You watch over me always, protecting and guiding me, and tonight …