Yoiking

The charming and adventuresome husband of a niece is on a PhD adventure in Greenland.  Brant is in the final stages of his PhD program in Science Education at the University of Minnesota.  It is fun to join the group through the internet and see where they are, listen to one of the group give an oral update, and learn a lot.  A few days ago, I sent him a little note about the Sami custom of yoiking. Today I find a segment on the Sami on that 2008  web site

My first encounter with it was at FinnFest 2006 in Astoria.  These festivals include people that present research papers and one that a cousin and I attended was about yoiking.  It was one of those experiences that simply knock your socks off.  Additionally, this dear cousin yoiked a family gathering as a meal grace.  Her haunting yoik that welcomed our ancestors and honored the event was magnificent.  As the site states, "It is possible to yoik dead relatives, forgotten places and dramatic events, to make sure they do not disappear from the collective memory bank."

When one has the blessed gift of falling asleep holding hands with the one you  love, what is to complain about?  I think about Brant's sweet little wife, mother of three small children, letting go of her strong hand holder for so many weeks.  May God bless her for her generosity.

Happy to be Alive

I marvel at how thrilling it is to enjoy the arrival of warm weather and see the flowering bulbs and trees, even the grass looks greener in my own yard.  I am thankful that I live in a place that enjoys the seasons as they return.  My pear is blooming and if we don't get a freeze we will have pears to can again.  I am so happy to be experiencing another spring.  I told my primary care physician today that we had a wonderful winter.  We did, I worked on my book and He Who.... memorized Spanish words and worked at playing the guitar.

The three lilacs in large containers are showing purple even if the back yard rabbit had a few munches on the lower stems.  It was the never ending snow that prompted him to eat the bittersweet stems right down to the ground.  I have high hopes that they will grow back with renewed vigor.  Surely their root systems are hardy after these years.

And the pool is filling after weeks of hard long labor.  A son came to help with the concrete wall repair.  It will take a couple of days to fill it.  Life is good.

They Have Sisu

The scene on the header leads your eye down the road  to my grandparent's homestead.  The butte in the horizon is Liisa Butte, just west of the homeplace.  Early springs found my grandma, aunts and mother taking me to find the first of the crocus on the northern side of the hill.  A little later, cousins faster, bigger, much braver and  advernturesome hunted rattlesnakes on it.    Thanks for the photo!

This is truely a thin place that Marcus Borg speaks of;  those places with a particular spirituality, where God is near,  the air is full of a poignant special scent, the Meadow Larks call, and your heart nearly bursts for the love of it all.