More and more thoughts…

Sorry to be boring tonight, but you’re not going to get very much out of me. I am tired yes, but the real reason you aren’t going to get a lot out of me is because of my absolutely asinine plan to wake up tomorrow morning and join my friend Natasha on what amounts to about a 25km round trip run. Natasha and I are running from Lakehead University out to the Terry Fox Memorial Site. My wake-up call is 5:15am for a 5:30am departure, so wish me luck…Just so you know, I am definitely not in good enough shape to be running the equivalent of a half marathon, but I’m young, head strong and hopefully resilient so I’m going to give it a shot. It is moments like these that underscore the distinct similarities that I have to my grandpa on my mom’s side. My Grandpa has somewhat of a reputation for being particularly meticulous about his recognition of landmarks and monuments. I am glad to have inherited at least part of this zeal for observation. The thought of standing on the ground of the Terry Fox Memorial is more than enough motivation for me to pull my sorry behind out of bed in six hours…Wish me luck…

As far as today goes…Once again the day was packed full of useful sessions on life in the Canadian North. At times the discussion fell into a very deep and complicated place, which only served to underscore the distinct challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of me as I am taught about the culture of Fort Hope this summer. Today was also the first day of concrete planning with our teams. It was nice to finally get some real discussion going about our specific communities. To be honest I am really excited. Also, in this vein of honesty I should also admit that I called home today. Part of me thought that it might be best for me to wait for a couple of weeks before calling, just to let myself adjust to being away, but I’ve learned over the past year that fighting an urge like calling home, just for the sake of fighting it, is pointless and counterproductive. Plus…I kinda like talking to those parent and sibling folk of mine.

In discussion today I gave away more of my father’s wisdom…I’m giving him a hell of a lot of credit these days…Not so sure if I can/should keep that up! 😉 I also got to mention the amazing experience that many of the Loran scholars from last year’s retreat got to have. All of you who were in the talking circle can attest to the emotional power it generated and I found one of it’s teachings to be quite applicable today.

In our talking circle last year a couple of simple, yet important rules were enforced.

1/ Whoever had the talking stone was the only person allowed to speak. They were permitted to speak for as long or as short as they wanted. Basically they were allowed to speak until they had said what needed to be said.

2/ No one was allowed to respond directly to a comment made previously.

What these two simple rules forced all of us to do was to listen and engage in the discussion process on an entirely different level then those of us in the south are accustomed to. It allowed you to absorb the true weight, feeling and emotion behind the words being said without being distracted by your own inner thoughts. So often we spend our time preparing our response to a question or statement before it has been completely stated. This affects our ability to properly absorb the message of the speaker. By removing the frenetic back and forth patter of daily conversation people were able to truly understand what each speaker was trying to say. The superficiality was stripped away until only the raw emotion remained.

What happened in the talking circle stays in the talking circle, but what I will say is that if we all took the time to listen on a daily basis, like we did for that two hours session, our world would be a much different place. Consider this as you carry out a conversation in your own life. Try to listen and absorb before responding. Allow your thinking to occur after your processing has occurred. You might like what you discover.

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings again for another day. I am off to bed now so that I can get up tomorrow and embarass myself…

–Be kind to each other and don’t fall down…