First one...Ensimmäinen.

    So technically, this isn't the first entry. It's not even the second, as I've been writing to myself in Word for a little bit. And although I'm an amazing audience, I decided to take a leap and publish some of my thoughts online. It might be an audience of one, plus two more. I have dedicated friends lol. 
    I'm a pretty private person, so there won't be a lot of soul-bearing here, but I think a lot. And I like to write. Actually, I'd forgotten how much I liked to write until very recently. I signed up for an Aspiring Leadership group through our Prairie Spirit School Division, and one of the things they had us do at our first meeting was to create an "I Am From" poem. To say it was cathartic doesn't do it justice. It was like a small stone starting an avalanche for me. (This site is called Rocks and Willows....there's going to be a lot of metaphors haha.) The second reason I started writing might have been before that even. I'll have to get the calendar out to check! But it's a story for another entry.
    So I thought I'd share my "I Am From" poem with you, sans edits. If you think this sucks and you're never coming back to read anything I've written again, then blame the Superintendent running the session that day as he put us on a timer! Just kidding. **There may be sarcasm at some points in this blog. If you think that sucks and you're never coming back to read anything I've written, then I'm okay with that too.** This is for me. You can come along for the journey if you want to.

I am from Rock Point, right on the edge
many nights and mornings at the kitchen window
scanning miles and patterns of fields beyond the Coteau Hills.
I am from stoic Finlanders and Irish tempers
and a landed-in-Dunblane-where-the-tracks-ended-with-25cents-in-his-pocket
and-not-speaking-a-word-of-English stories.
I am from childhood coffee time and the lilting
of words not understood
but felt.
Of kahvia and kiitos and hauska syntymäpäivää!
I am from a two seater airplane, it's pilot
with a grade 8 education, a product of time and circumstances
but of trust and exhilaration and 
bumpy
pasture
landings.
I am from farming and freedoms
Of middle child mixups and a family
of siblings with alliterations as names.
I am my mom, and that makes me proud. And happy.
Happy and proud.
I am from Miss Carney and Kindergarten
and dreams that came to fruition.
I am from detours through music, and full circle again.
I am partnered with contrast.
Of half-breed birth certificates, residential schools,
abuse and abandonment.
But of resilience and hope and our
beautiful brown-eyed family which
makes his story forever also mine.
I am from peace
and love
and good fortune.
And gratitude.
I am.


Kiitos-Hiy Hiy-Thanks for reading!
Edla.


kahvia: coffee, the life force of Finlanders
kiitos: thanks!
hauska syntymäpäivää: happy birthday, and aside from counting to ten, about the only Finnish words I used an a regular basis. Okay, like twice a year when Mummu and Poppa had their birthdays, but I practiced over and over till I had it right!