Winter of life! It sure is upon me!
The good life, that time in my past, when physical health issues for myself anyway, weren’t of great concern to me. I remember being in my 20’s and playing poker and drinking beer till 2 on a weekday night, going to sleep and finding myself as a passenger in a car at 6:30 AM going to an Ottawa construction site from Pontiac County where I lived at the time. I put in my day, made a profit for the boss, even though I was dog tired and hung over. How I did it, I still can’t figure out! So many such tales I could tell but no need to do so, you get the picture!
Since my sobriety began in 1988, I saw the wellness of my daughters’ (I have no sons) future emotional and spiritual wellbeing, as a sacred duty expected of me by Creator. I know my daughters would agree that I did my very best to gently guide their pathway, leading them to be recognized as strong Algonquin women who contribute to the wellness of our Nation.
Even before old age crept up on me, worry about how my younger loved ones were doing emotionally and spiritually, was first and foremost on my mind. To me, being old means it is time to care more about the future generations than ever before in my life. The next generations, those in the springtime, the summer, the autumn of their lives need our wisdom, our patience, our love, our support, if they are going to be able to compete and succeed in a world that to me, is getting more and more nonsense-filled as the days go swiftly by.
I’m 75 years old and feel every day of it now. Suddenly it seems, my old body, with its creaking and cracking language told me, “I am old and worn out, I can’t take the abuse anymore.” I do have energy left in my body but it needs to be refreshed as often as possible. I go to the forest near my home in Kitigan Zibi to do so. If there is anything in this world which is willing to generously share its energy with human beings, it’s the trees of the forest.
I endure pain, every minute of every hour of every day. I fell 43 feet off a grist mill roof in the spring of 1991. As an Anishinabe Algonquin man, alive now in my senior years, I have no plans of ever taking a drug to help soothe the throbbing pain often pulsing in my lower back. I rely instead, on what I retrieve from the medicine bundles of long ago ancestors to bring healing when I call to them for it. I trust in them, my ancestors! I look to them for guidance and direction in all situations impacting the emotional and spiritual wellbeing of my family members. It’s the right thing to do!
My advice to all folks, especially the oldsters, go to the forest where great trees stand tall, sit there and ponder what the trees will share in the way of refreshment of energies weakened by years of physical and spiritual neglect. It will do you good, I promise!
I might be old, but I am not dead yet! I can still put up a fight. My fist fighting days are long behind me LOL, but violence of any kind was never the answer. Not all leaders make sense. Let’s support those that do.
This is what I have learned long ago and is the code of life I try to live by today.
Keep the Circle Strong,
South Wind (Albert Dumont)
