By Ricey Wild
On aging: OMG!!! How can one be aching while sleeping in a soft bed?! I’ve slept on floors before and woke up feeling fine. Those days are long gone and now I struggle to simply get out of bed. It ain’t easy being an Old Kwe (woman).
Yes, I know I am a complainer and have shared way too much with yooz but I am human, and I’m glad I’ve had yooz in my life for so long. Grateful? You betcha. It has been an adventure and I know I am blessed by your presence here in my space. Know that yooz are loved by me.
I don’t remember the last powwow I attended, however, I do feel the connection with like-minded spirits and I miss frybread and moose meat soup (Ojibwe-Mooz naboob). What I want is a ribbon skirt so I fit in, but saving money is seriously difficult for me. I exist below the national poverty level even after working for most of my life, starting at 13 years young.
I was not in the fields picking vegetables or fruit, no, I had a job named ‘Native Heritage’ , a newsletter learning about writing, poetry, photography and journalism by Indigenous kids. Yet I got a small check and I was happy. Then? Here I am now. That was the mid-70’s. That is also where I met a few lifetime friends. They know who they are.
Totally off-topic, I have an all-white cat named Tom Petty. He is soo soft and handsome and protects me at night from evil. Tom Tom is also huge, over 27 pounds, no kidding. Anyhoo, I didn’t know just how brown I am after I petted him as a kitten. It’s all good. I used to seriously wonder why pink people tanned just hard only to be racist against those of us who are naturally beautiful?!
But I digress. I’m older and often forget the original thought. It has been an adventure. I’m just sayin’. Like having siblings coming out of the woodwork. More on that in my book. It will be fun! Scandalous!!! Yes. Watch me, now that Maw and Paw have passed I do not owe anyone in my family grace. Well, except for my Unk Vern, he is a good person, if a bit irascible.
Ayy!!! Now that I think about it, irascible is a genetic trait from where I come from. Oh! I was talking to my therapist today and I remembered that some people end up from where they were born! Case in point: Moi. I was born in the community hospital to an unwed mother. My birth certificate had no father listed, so therefore I am a virgin birth, ennit? Now bow down.
Miracles yanno? They happen. LOL! Not me, It is a miracle I survived poverty and neglect. If I had not had my maternal grandparents? Sigh. Agh. I am grateful that my family are big readers, for if not for them I may have grown up stupid and ignorant. My only child, my Sun, would ask questions and one time I responded, “Because I read”.
When Sun was in prison he read and read and read. Not only fictional books but magazines and many sources of relevant information. Afterward,when we had conversations I realized the student had become the Master. I was overwhelmed and proud of him at the same time. Blessings.
Words matter so when I write becoming so old and whiny I now get why older people are so cranky. Some of them live in a world of pain and regret. So plz be kind and if you should become older, be empathic. My therapist said this state of being is not for the weak. I agree. I’m up to 15+ surgeries now that I can recall.
Yes, I am grateful for my amenities but I did not anticipate living for so long given my former lifestyle, that I would be so decrepit and wah wah wah! Yet, here I am. The one who rock-climbed with Dragon-Lady nails and faced down a spider who dared peep me with eight eyes. I didn’t know which one to look at.
Living da Nortland I also ice skated, snowmobiled (thanks to the neighbors) and later in my teens downhill skied. Plus I played ‘King of the Hill’ where one would climb up the snowbank and push everyone down who dared to challenge the King.
I spose I’m being all angry and resentful of what I used to be able to do. There is the story of a man from my Rez who was called “Old Wrinkled Meat” who claimed to have lived over 100+years. His response to the question, “How have you lived so long?” “Let the women do the work”.
