Powwow day!

Is it just me, or are there any other parents out there who are sick, I repeat SICK of making lunches?

For many reasons, including my disability's limitations and our commitment to not adhering to stereotypical gender roles, our household duties are pretty much equally divided.  And yet, I am still stuck making lunches.  I'm just weary of coming up with ideas for lunch, of what can be easily packed and eaten, of meeting the goal of simplicity, but also being creative so no one gets bored, and I'm resentful of the time it takes to make them at night when I just want to sleep. 

So when Chelsea phoned from school this morning to say that she had forgotten her lunch and could I bring it to her, I was grumpy at having to disrupt my schedule in order to bring her the lunch that I grumpily made.  She met me at the front of the school with a huge smile on her face, and the first thing she said was, "Just in the nick of time, Mom, because we are getting ready to go to the Powwow!  It's Powwow day!  Woohoo!  Maybe we will get to do a round dance!"

I shook my head, my grumpiness over such a petty thing as lunch dissipated.  Although I grew up in a community with many First Nations kids and close to many reserves, I had never had a chance to go to a Powwow, and the way things were at the time, if I had been given that chance, I probably thought it would be weird.  However, working in student services on the University of Saskatchewan campus next door to the Aboriginal Student's Centre, I went to my first Powwow as an adult.  I was even asked to participate in the Grand Entry once.  A great honour.

Powwows have a deep and resilient history and they reflect the struggles that First Nations people had in order to retain their traditions and spiritual beliefs.  They are a source of identity, and the celebration of community.  I think it is impossible to not feel that community, that sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself when you participate in a Powwow.  And here my daughter was not only going, but bursting-at-the-seams excited to go.  Her mind and heart so open, I changed from being the grumpy bear with the grumpy lunch and found beauty where I least expected it. 

Check it out.  You can even watch it live. 

http://students.usask.ca/current/aboriginal/powwow/

wishing you a beautiful lunch,
hk