How to Grow a Man

Hi Friends
I've been thinking of our ancestors on this day, and on this the occasion of the Thanks-Giving Day weekend. It was at this time of the year that our people gathered to enjoy each others company, and to celebrate the harvest. This was also the time to do our trading of goods, as well as other preparations for the winter to come.

I also know that things hadn't changed much for my grandparents even when I was a child. I didn't grow up on reserve but did visit with my mother, as my grandmother and grandfather harvested their garden and chopped and stacked wood for the coming winter. It was an all hands on deck time, with even the youngest child expected to help with all manner of chores.
After we'd finish the pickling, and jamming of their gardens yield, it was back to our home where we did the same preparations. I have been a gardener for all my married life, and have passed this past-time on to my own (now) married son.
While we waited for the turkey to cook, I asked him just what it was about this past time that he and his wife enjoyed so much. They are both professionals with demanding jobs, and more than an adequate income. He told me, " I guess it's the feeling of self sufficiency that it gives me! I know that I can always buy pickles, or jam but it's knowing that I possess the knowledge of how to make them, as well as having grown them that inspires me."
I couldn't have said it better myself!

We are the descendants of a very self sufficient people. Our Nations had been up-rooted from their home regions and dropped off in entirely foreign surroundings, and adapted to these new circumstances and eventually thrived. So now lets talk about the old ways honestly. I am heart sick when I listen to the tales of old when our people were shut out of the Canadian way of life; when we were held back from real growth and a chance to participate in all that this country had to offer. We are making our ways slowly back to that time long ago when we were our own men and women. Is it fast enough? I don't know.

The old days I remember were of my grandparents self sufficiency. Their growing a garden, smoking fish, and game. Hauling wood out to be chopped up for fire wood, and of quills being dyed to be used by my mother and grandmother throughout the winter in the decorating of the willow and birch bark baskets they made to sell in the spring.

There exist today entire university study programs devoted to the study of fairy tales. I myself remember well the tale of Jack and the Bean Stalk. The story of an impoverished mother and son with one old cow, traded in for the handful of magical beans. What on the surface looked like a bad trade, turned out to be the salvation of them. This is how I view gardening.
There is something magical about the planting of a seed and watching it's growth to eventual fruition, and there further exists the feeling of self sufficiency that comes with the gardening experience that can make a man! I have seen this magic myself with my own son.

Happy Holiday All.
Debra