Most like their springs and summers to be filled with sun and clear skies, I however, prefer it to be filled with rain and clouds. I find peace in the rain and all that comes with it. I recently learned a new word, petrichor, meaning the pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. I was anxious to use it, and given the large amount of rainy days there has been over the last couple weeks it seemed appropriate. Most mornings this past week I have woken up to this pleasant smell and the chirping of birds and I can truly say it has been delightful. It is a good thing I can marvel in these simple pleasures and find ways to keep occupied as this week many of our plans took unexpected turns, leaving us with nothing to do. Our busy weekend filled with plans turned into reading books, going for a run and an aimless trips to High Level and Vermilion. Through these dimly drowsy days we had a lot of time to fill and potential for boredom. This is were being able to take pleasure in reflection and being content with oneself becomes a necessity and an art which I am glad to say that I have all but mastered.
Saturday morning Lily and I as well as the other fellows from Chateh will be meeting in High Level for a 5 km run. Lily and I have been training some morning and evenings, but either way please wish us luck, we are going to need it!
Throughout this week we have spent a lot of time at the community center in the other Beaver First Nation community of Child's Lake, helping my supervisor, Nevada, host a platform for community consultation for land use within the Beaver First Nation Consultative area. With that we had many interesting visits and anecdotes from community members who stopped by and one heck of a long bingo, used as incentive to draw in people. This whole process was very interesting as it is something I have learned about in school. To be able to actually see it played out and rather from the side of the proponent or consultant but from the effected community was a great eye opener and very beneficial to my understanding of the process. On top of that I got a chance to spend a lot of time with my supervisor, and a good majority of that time was spent in laughter! She is a survival expert and hosts an impressive amount of survival related books. She is also very interested in foraging and plants, Nevada,Lily and I now have a list of teas we are going to try from plants we can find right out here in our backyard. After flipping through some of her books and hearing her share some of the stories and knolwdege she has acquired through elders, books, and experience I can definitely say I have learned some interesting and useful things. Hopefully she will continue to share some of this knowledge with me throughout the summer to come! She even brought us to La Crete on Friday for pizza and a little bit of shopping. This week has been very exciting in terms of work and very steady at home. There have been less stories to report here but more laughter and stories then I can ever convey in a single blog post. This weeks post will be shorter then previous ones not from a lack of stories but rather an abundance.