Goodbye.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to blog about this but have not come up with a great way to word it so i will just put it out there.

My attendaence and activity level in Kung Fu has been been down the last couple of weeks and it's because of where my mind is at. The day before I came home, I found out my grandmother passed away. So on Thursday I went to her wake and it was a very powerful and emotional experience.

I feel like I need to give some backstory her. My grandfather lost his wife when my mom was 14. He met and married a woman from the Alexis First Nation and moved there when my mom was 21. When I was 9, I spent my entire summer on the Reserve at their place. To say I stuck out was an undersatement, but I was never treated differently and I experienced so many great things. I continued to do this until I was 13.

Jump ahead a few years, we moved to a house that borders the reserve so we could be closer to my Grandfather. I continued to see my friends and spend a lot of time there. As the years went on, my Grandfather passed and i started to lose contact with everyone. I would still see them as my mom gained 2 sisters (my aunts) and hence some neices and nephews but it was not as often.

The wake was a powerful experience because of what they do. The traditional drumming and singing was an emotional experience because you could hear feel the sorrow in the music. The ceremony itself with the peace pipe and the circle was something my brother and I were allowed to take part in. Even though it was a relationship through marriage, we are treated no differently than blood relatives. I will miss her and what she has done to make my life better.