Cairns by Anabel
What balance means to me is using strategy and opening up about how you feel and being active. I play basketball to keep that sort of balance. It helps me stay as fit as possible but, it also helps with being mindful of other things. I can create different plans inside my head to defend one person and come up with another to get across a person when i have the ball. Another thing I like to do to create harmony and also a connection with my culture is smudge with sage. It releases all of my tense and negative feelings. It helps me focus and be able to really think about what my next plans are for my life. I also work out a little in my room just to keep up a little bit and have at least a bit of muscle and keep my mental state strong and push myself.
Growing up, I would always try to stack rocks or marbles but never knew what it meant to do that but now that I’m older and more mature, I understand the existence of cairns and how they represent such a important aspect of our lives. Making sure that you have that connection with yourself and a spiritual connection. Nobody really realizes how much they need to keep that balance and when they do, they either don’t think much of it, or they think too MUCH of it. Then they start to constantly overwhelm themselves and think that they won’t ever find the happiness they need in their lives and then they fall down a dark path. Then the people who don’t think enough of it, don’t get to have that fullness and gratefulness in their life and they also, fall down a dark path because they couldn’t find the balance and strength they need.
My uncle said to always be aware of the middle. You’re either in extreme lows, a good, healthy middle, or a crazy and insane high. He said some days you’ll be in the lows and some days you’ll be in the highs. But you need to always, always be aware of the middle ground because that’s where you’ll be able to focus and live life the way you need to. He also said some people are stuck in the lows and are completely depressed. Others are stuck in the highs and can’t get a grasp on reality. And that’s why I use sports and my beautiful culture, which I’m proud of, to always be in the middle and have that balance and harmony people so desperately need in life. It’s hard but, we all need to just find a way to not get away from reality, but find a way to understand it.
By Anabel (Turtle Mt. Chippewa)
‘Balance’ is a youth essay series sponsored by the Clear Sky Youth Council in Seattle, WA
Seattle Clear Sky Native Youth Council is a program of Urban Native Education Alliance a 501c3 Native led non-profit. Clear Sky is a cultural and educational youth centered program designed to respond to our urban Native student needs academic, and cultural needs and interests. Our motto is ‘Thriving through culture, tradition and education’.
In light of our National upheaval related to the novel COVID19 pandemic, our program shifted to virtual remote gatherings and educational activities. We want to reach as many youth as possible and appeal to the variety of interests represented in our diverse student population, with that in mind we launched several culture based learning opportunities including; Photography ‘Indigenous hunt’, video lessons on traditional medicine , essay topics related to learning activities, fitness and nutrition challenges.
Most every activity involves gift card incentives for participation, we celebrate our students in supporting their art, poetry, essays, and ideas by showcasing their work on facebook, newsletters, website, honoring their unique individual and collective talents.
Ultimately our vision is for our urban youth to have a multitude of platforms for elevating their voice and strengthen their connections with their culture and traditions, academic success and socio-economic-political empowerment is the result.