Ashlee spent a couple nights with us and here are some pictures from her visit.
Watch out for the little people tonight, and whatever your beliefs on this halloween day...they will be out there in hoards, so please be careful.
Bats, black cats, pumpkins --- all were made by God! BTW, the only ghost invited into our house is the Holy Ghost!
I read this poem online tonight at DomesticViolence.org.
Another Woman
Today another woman died
and not on a foreign field
and not with a rifle strapped to her back,
and not with a large defense of tanks
rumbling and rolling behind her.
She died without CNN covering her war.
She died without talk of intelligent bombs
and strategic targets
The target was simply her face, her back
her pregnant belly.
The target was her precious flesh
that was once composed like music
in her mother's body and sung
in the anthem of birth.
The target was this life
that had lived its own dear wildness,
had been loved and not loved,
had danced and not danced.
A life like yours or mine
that had stumbled up
from a beginning
and had learned to walk
and had learned to read.
and had learned to sing.
Another woman died today.
not far from where you live;
Just there, next door where the tall light
falls across the pavement.
Just there, a few steps away
where you've often heard shouting,
Another woman died today.
She was the same girl
her mother used to kiss;
the same child you dreamed
beside in school.
The same baby her parents
walked in the night with
and listened and listened and listened
For her cries even while they slept.
And someone has confused his rage
with this woman's only life.
-Carol Geneya Kaplan
Somewhere tonight, a wise-beyond-her-years older sister, really still a baby herself, climbs into bed beside her sleeping baby brother. Quietly she softly breathes, then listens to her parents angry shouts.
Grown-up, spoiled children living for the moment, always fighting for wanting more respect, more love, more things, more whatever ---yet always living so oblivious to the treasures they already have, hiding in those quiet, dark rooms.
It turns out that Anchorage now wants them back! Something like five million dollars (?) worth of business was lost when they took their meetings up to Fairbanks. I find that hard to believe. Five million is a lot of money!
Villagers are talking about how there are no jobs and with hunting and subsistence regulations the way they are some people hardly have food enough to eat. The high price of fuel is another problem for ones way out in the Bush. How five million can be made from this group makes me scratch my head.
Anyway, I had to laugh when I heard on NBC's morning news show that Anchorage welcomes AFN back and they are bending over backwards to accomadate them. Free train and bus rides and the Eagan Convention Center free this year, in hopes that it will encourage them to return next year during AFN time! It looks like AFN hopping up to Fairbanks last year was a great move for AFN!
"It's not about politics, it's about food on the table," said Johns (Ken Johns of AHTNA) speaking about the subsistence issues. Read more at KTVA.
The Quyanna Dance was held tonight! I am not political enough to get all rambunctious over the politics, but I have enjoyed going to AFN to see family.
The AFN delegations all sit in groups according to their village Corporations. We walk along until we see family at the Koniag and the Old Harbor Corporation areas. The Arts & Crafts fair is where you can see many of the handcrafts from the villages. Beautiful work.
Looks like another AFN is off to a great start.
Winter softly arrives at Twin Lake.
We drove to Wasilla to pick up a few things for a treat for the grandkids Halloween. On the way home the snow was coming down in little tiny flakes. By the time Marie got home from her Worship Team practice the flakes were big and beautiful. She went out right away to take pictures. I went to bed and got up early to take these pictures.
I shoveled the sidewalk and I think the snow has stopped already! [pooh!]
