I took a picture of this saying, on the wall outside my friend Lisa's classroom, because I like it.

Saskatchewan: I very much like this portrait of Arnold, and here, too, you find my beautiful sister Andrea and our friend Sally. All of them have rich stories, but let me just give a little shout out to Sally's husband, Ken, who is one of the finest potters in the province, and whose artistry is delicate and beautifully evocative of the prairie we call home. You can take the girl out of Saskatchewan and move her to B.C. and to Québec, and around the world...all good places with fine memories...but there is something about Saskatchewan that still says 'home', to me. These people are amongst the reasons.

Cheryl, my lovely friend who is a talented singer-songwriter.
Here are Fraser, Jill, Ceilidh, and Gabrielle. Fraser and I became close friends in 1971...and Jill and I met and became close in the early '80's, just before she and Fraser met and married in February 1985. Their daughters are beautiful and talented gems...and I was very touched to be included in the family celebrations of Fraser's 50th.

I begin with memory. With over two hundred photographs, I begin by trying to take you to a place I have lately been. This is the view from my cabin window at Glenairley, where I joined seventeen other poets under the warm and wise tutelage of Patrick Lane. I will write detail of this particular few days at my poetry blog, www.heatherpoet.blogspot.com, should you care to visit it...and try and take you through my last two weeks in the way they work in my mind: glimpses of people and events.

First, I think, I think of the many gifts of love: my sister Andrea, picking me up at the airport and taking me there again four times over the course of several days. Arriving in Saskatoon, leaving there for Victoria, arriving back, leaving after a few more days for home. I used almost every type of transportation, and relied on others who kindly conducted me to one engagement after another. We began with a supper at Andrea's home, full of friends and laughter. On November 12, more friends and family in the afternoon at McNally-Robinson, where I sat and signed books...but mostly enjoyed the visits with people in that warmly encompassing place. A few glitches...but my book had its moment of glory, I suppose, although it was a very simple one.

Afterwards, we drove quickly to downtown Saskatoon, where the celebration of the birth of Baha'u'llah was winding up. I had a hug from Linda McRae, long overdue...and a lovely visit with dear friends I hadn't seen in over a decade, perhaps almost two: David and Susan Pezderic. Susan later came over to Andrea's for a further visit, and that evening, we attended a dramatic event at "the Refinery"...quite delightful...and then it was off to Victoria.

I took buses and the ferry and a very rattly train to arrive at my friend Lisa's in the evening. We had not seen one another for almost five years. This seems unbelievable to me even now. Our time, too, was short, but I did get a chance to go to the high school where she now works, and to have lunch with the Principal. I observed Lisa in some of her classes, chatted with her colleagues, and visited the library, but the most interesting aspect of the day, I suppose, was the wind.

I have now seen the wind: it blew so hard it seemed to have a colour. Trees toppled and I could not go on the evening I had planned; it was too dangerous for Cheryl to drive and get me. She did the next morning, and we returned from America...I actually felt rather nationalistic as we crossed back from the U.S. to Canada. I spent a few short hours with Gord, Cheryl, and Angus...and took pictures of paintings so that Bernie could see them (Gord does not get enough chance to paint but what he does do is wonderful.) Gord took me to the ferry, and then a series of various adventures through downtown Victoria finally carried me to the hinterlands of Sooke, B.C., where two very kind women collected me for the drive to the back of beyond that is the Glenairley Retreat. There, I spent almost four days immersed in poetry (see the other blog).

The next visit comprised a few short hours with my dear Aunt and Uncle and cousin Colleen. My father's sister and her family live at Qualicum Beach, and they very kindly came into the city to collect me. Niece Valerie joined us, with her significant other, Mike, and we had dinner. It was a convivial occasion which involved, in my case, an undercooked piece of salmon which I sent back to the kitchen...and which they subsequently overcooked. Oh well: go to the Coast and eat fish.

After Nora, Sherwood and Colleen conducted to me to the home of my hosts in Maple Bay, I visited with them (Jim and Val Warder from Saskatchewan days)...and admired their beautiful home, and view, across the Cowichan Valley. Jim is building it, and it is beautiful in its architecture and its ambiance. Paintings of mutual friends cover the walls...and we chatted of old friends and of the day to come.

On Monday, November 20, I spent the day at Maxwell. Above, you will find the lovely Deloria Bighorn, who has been a Counsellor there for many, many years, and who had arranged for me to address the gathered students and teachers in the morning assembly, now held in the dining hall since the former Assembly room has become Leola's new library. After my speech, I had the opportunity to greet and chat with many friends, and to meet some young people whom I had known as children and are now youth there at the school. It was a heartwarming day, and Deloria's son Kai was my enthusiastic and willing tour guide through the "new and improved" version of my former place of work. I returned to Victoria on the bus, where my niece Valerie collected me and she and her partner made a lovely dinner, during which we had a far-reaching discussion. I shall probably reflect on the thoughts of that evening for some time, and share some of these thoughts with you as they percolate. Mike has just finished his Ph.D. and he and I found that although is area is advanced genetic biology, and mine, as you know, lies more in the humanities directions, nonetheless there was an intermeshing of our interests. This partly was because he is a scientist who loves the arts, and I am inclined towards the arts but have a healthy reading respect for the sciences, stemming from my days in the long ago when Fritjof Capra and others demystified some elements of physics for me.

After Andrea collected me from the airport the next day (Valerie drove me through the rainy Victoria weather to catch yet another plane)...she and I went home and shortly to sleep, and the next day one of the highlights of my visit to Saskatchewan occurred. That evening, I attended the Baha'i Feast in North Battleford, Sask., as the guest of my dear friends Fraser and his wife Jill. Fraser was celebrating his 50th birthday on November 23, and we had arranged to do so together. At the Feast were gathered some lovely friends, and I think I will share some photos of that event in my next post. It's hard to get them in the placement I want, in the formats offered by this blog, so better to just spread them out two by two for you to enjoy.

On Friday, Andrea and I relaxed, went shopping, and went to an amazing dinner at the restaurant where her son Graham works. We were treated like royalty and left rather replete...and then filled up some more on the good company of Kim, Pam, and Arnold, at home. The next day was travel day, and then last night a visit at home with my family. We shared dinner with our neighbours, where France P. had cooked a lovely meal for us and for some other guests, including our friends Don and Barbara Rogers. It was lovely to see them. Don gave the keynote address today at the Festival and as always, inspired me with some unusual views of particular quotations from the Baha'i writings.

It is good to be home. Today was spent assisting at the Festival of the Covenant, and I will perhaps share some of its highlights...the music was fantastic. Although programs had been planned, there were some friends who arose spontaneously to offer their song, or dance. One group were three African friends now resident in Montreal, one of whom had been a member of the choir from Congo which sang in Haifa...we were transported. Bruno and his family also shared their music, from Madagascar, and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy it.

I have spent time in the company of friends, and I came home to an offer of work. More on that as it gets organized, but tonight, as often, my prayers will be of thanksgiving. I hope you, too, are counting many blessings.

I have added a new link: I was reading Baha'i Views, which I do relatively often, and discovered that George had posted a piece from Mishkin Berteig. This family is very dear to me and I have a painting of Garry Berteig's (Mishkin's dad) on my office wall. It was his gift to Bernie and me on the occasion of our wedding in 1984. I cannot tell you how stunning Garry's art is, so you'd have to look for yourself, and indeed I found his website, so have linked it for anyone who cares to have a visual feast.

Some things are just too lovely to resist. I wasn't going to post again until I returned in two weeks but this morning received photographs from a dear friend in Africa. Olinga and his wife Nontsiki have a little son, Leseli, and here he is! Olinga was a student of mine at Maxwell Int'l School, back in the day, and returned to his home in Africa after graduation, where he met and married Nontsiki, and their beautiful son you see here on the left, with a smaller inset of mother and son while visiting Canada last winter. Olinga's paternal history is here in Québec...this is a truly international family of pioneers for our faith.

Here is our old friend Duncan Hanks with Dad. Duncan is the Director of the Canadian Baha'i International Development Agency, and he gave an exceptional presentation in Ottawa yesterday which included some video material of the Agency's work in Honduras, which is modelled after various Socio-Economic Development projects in Colombia and which provide a truly remarkable and sustainable approach to development. The principles of our faith are integrated into grassroots and very practical approaches to agriculture, literacy, and community change. It was an impressive demonstration of the beginning and exciting application of spiritual principle to social action, and there was a crowd at the home of our hostess who were diverse and eager to hear this exciting news.

Our afternoon there followed a fireside at our home where Mom was the highlighted speaker and where several people peppered her with questions. She is a tremendous storyteller but as with all her stories, they lead to a point, and are shared with wisdom and spiritual principle. We were on a very pleasant learning curve...and I later received an e-mail from one of our guests and a new friend, Mike, who is our old friend Bill Skuce's nephew and has recently joined the faith. He commented that one of the images which stayed with him was the analogy shared by a participant that for a human being to search for God is like a fish searching for water.

We were about ten people gathered to hear Mom, and it was with reluctance that we stopped the discussion at about one o'clock since some of us were also planning to go the afternoon CBIDA session. It has been a very busy time, and I am now looking forward to a variety of events this week (Writer's Group at Jack's tomorrow night, Ruhi 4 at Marilee's on Wednesday) before my departure on Saturday for Saskatoon and then Victoria and points beyond.

Life is full and busy.

here are healing things:

dad and i work together
in the back yard as snow begins
lights rise over the valley
i throw remnant tomatoes
leftover sprigs of basil
stems of yellow flowers gone
over the back fence
he rakes in his red woolly
so many leaves

here are quiet things:

my hands smell of garlic
on my knees in the kitchen
while mom plays on her computer
i boil the kettle and forget
again to make tea
but glimpse my son coming down
hill home
plug it in again

here are restless things:

wait for white to fill
cracks in knobby earth
as mind wanders west
if i could bring it closer
just imagining
home friends places
we once knew
still remember

here are beginning things:

whistle of steam, movement
to that plane takes me
where i think i ought to be
until this memory winds
back to a red sweater
raking as i pour heat
into her waiting hands

wait for cold