EMBRACING MY FATE

A complicated journey home to Mother Earth

Picture of Lake Michigan taken by author

My fondest memories as a child were of the camping trips I went on with my maternal grandparents. Though they lived at just above the poverty level, my exposure to them shaped me much more than my exposure to my paternal grandparents, who had considerable generational wealth. My maternal grandfather was a soft-spoken and wise First Nations Ottawa, and my grandmother was a fiery European. Though I learned a great deal from both of them, it was my grandfather who instilled values in me that I’m still discovering as an older adult because of how he lived. To this day, his wisdom reveals itself to me by the things he didn’t do and the things he didn’t say. He didn’t brag or complain, never gossiped or preached, didn’t envy other people or chase wealth, and he never stuck his nose in other people’s business. By example, he taught me the value of remaining quiet and how to enjoy the humor in gently teasing loved ones. He worked in a foundry for meager wages to pay for the tiny house he built, and the concept of wealth seemed almost meaningless to him.

My grandfather, Stephen Medahko. I have this image tattooed on my right arm.

By contrast, my father’s grandparents and parents were European “highborn”, and my experiences with my weekend dad involved horseback riding…