Blessings and Thin Places – Letter from Manitoba

Some believe there are “thin places” where heaven and earth come close to each other. If you’re ever seeking a thin place, Medicine Eagle Healing and Retreat Place, run by elders Stella Blackbird and Audrey Bone, is one of them.

Medicine Eagle is on Keeseekoowenin First Nation in Manitoba. Last summer, I led a second youth mission trip there in conjunction with Winnipeg Inner City Missions. It’s a stunningly peaceful, jewel – toned, green place where you hear loons call and you might even see a bear (which I did).

There we helped Audrey and Stella pick medicine—Labrador tea, bearberry and sage.

The young team had transformative experiences working with the missions in Winnipeg—helping Jane with the Miracle Store, and buddying with the Flora House kids and Anishinabe Place of Hope Sunday school kids and leaders, on their big season – end field trips.

We just happened to be at Keeseekoowenin the same day as the powwow, one of the first in a few years. It was a bit of a formal occasion for Audrey’s grandson, Styles, who looked fantastic in his regalia. So did older sister America in her fancy shawl.

Audrey and Rev. Dr. Margaret Mullin, executive director of WICM, had both explained that the powwow was a celebration and anyone could dance. When the intertribal dances were announced, our youth were encouraged to join in. But they were a bit shy. Not so my six – year – old son, Ben. He jumped right in with some nifty hybrid ninja moves and then all our youth joined in.

At the powwow, Rev. Margaret gave me the most beautiful walking stick. It has bright bands of colour, with the blue at the top reflecting the waters of baptism from our tradition, she told me. She also said I could ask Stella to bless it for me after presenting a traditional gift of tobacco, which is the first medicine. Margaret just happened to have some.

We went out to Clear Lake in nearby Riding Mountain National Park for a dip. The day was glorious and sunny, with bright water sparkling.

Here Stella gave her blessing. She started with a smudge ceremony—using smoke from burning sage—with team members taking part. Then she prayed in Ojibwa. Afterward she explained at length how my staff had been made by a skilled craftsman. Rev. Margaret said I was to share my stick around with people in the circle because it’s not my gift, it’s something I share. And I was to complete the blessing with an offering of tobacco to the earth from which the stick came, and a prayer of thanks for Stella, the earth and the gift.

We who went on the trip will treasure more the sacred moments in our tradition. In the chaos of group camping, even the act of sitting down together for a meal and saying grace requires organizational effort and becomes a ritual sought, rather than taken for granted.

Since returning home, I have completed Stella’s blessing with a few family and congregation members. Our church, Norval, Halton Hills, Ont., has a beautiful property that backs onto the Credit River and is undoubtedly a thin place. We placed curled brown pipe tobacco around the old trees by the river and thus returned the gift of first medicine to the earth.

With these dark lines and curves, I draw from and give thanks for the old story—one replete with tales of ritual acts of thanks, of loaves and fishes,
lost sheep, strangers helping, sons forgiven…. Chi miigwetch.