Supporting Creativity is Building the Future

A Robin is sitting on her nest just under the eaves of our greenhouse in the backyard.  Since the clothes line goes right past her nesting spot, we have temporarily stopped hanging laundry on the line until the eggs have hatched and the nestlings have fledged.  Otherwise, clothes whizzing past her might scare her away and then the baby birds could be lost.  It is a small and easy thing for us to do to support the new life emerging in the yard.  Two chickadees have taken up residence in a bird box on the front lawn and two House Wrens are building a nest in the nesting box attached to the far side of the greenhouse. We really enjoy watching the bird parents work so diligently to bring new life into the world.  We do what we can to support them and not frighten them as they go about their sacred duties.

Last weekend, I attended a fundraiser for Sistema Huronia which is an organization that provides free music lessons for children who would otherwise not be able to afford them.  Sistema was started in Latin America and has now spread to many more countries.  Its focus is on having children learn to play violin, viola, cello or double bass to play together as a way of enriching the children and also to create community.  It was really wonderful to hear the children from Midland perform simple and more complex pieces together. The concert also included a senior’s yukele orchestra from the area as well as folk musicians from a local Coffee House called Good Vibes.  Here we all were on a Saturday afternoon celebrating the musical offerings of young and old alike.  The Board of Directors for Sistema is made up of four seniors who must fundraise to keep the program going.  Sistema Huronia is now five years old.  It was so  good to see the seniors from the Board and the musical groups working so diligently to support the children of the community and creating community as they did it.

Later on this past week, I attended a play called Empty Regalia. This play was written by Ziigwen  Mixemong, a young Indigenous woman from the area about Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.  The proceeds from the single performance of the  play all went to Greehaven, the local women’s shelter.  Ziigwen opened the play dressed in her Jingle Dress Regalia, dancing to the Strong Woman Song.  The short play showed four different scenarios in which an Indigenous woman was lost.  After each scenario, the woman donned a blank mask and then hung up her regalia on the black backdrop and disappeared.  By the end of the play, there were four brilliant regalia suspended against the black speaking loudly of the brilliance and beauty that was lost along with these women.

In the final scene, Ziigwen returned in her regalia and swept the area clean with her Eagle Feather as she danced suggesting hope for a new future.  The other actors were her friends who agreed to help her stage this play in a very short period of time.  The Orillia Opera House was well attended for this performance and the audience gave the actors a standing ovation.  After the play, there was a chance to ask the cast and crew questions to keep the dialogue going.  Once again, adults had come out to support young people who are trying to make a difference in the world and listened to what they had to say.  There are no easy solutions, but as Ziigwen said, How cool is it that we can shape the future?

My own children are all grown up now and the parenting role has changed but I still have a commitment to the young ones in the world and in my community.  Be they baby birds, young musicians or creative young people, they all need our support to grow and find their places in this world.  Indeed, they are building our future as well as their own and we would be wise to care for them well.