Creative Connections, By Sara Aeikens

Way up north and about four provinces to the west in Canada, an uncontrollable fire sends messages of  how much we influence each other even from a long distance away. At the beginning of a Saturday workshop held at the Episcopal Church, the faraway fire affected our gathering enough that we decided not to use the walking labyrinth for an outside meditation activity.

Our group stayed inside, closed the windows to avoid the hazy and smoky-smelling morning and became better acquainted with our inner selves by learning to create collages reflecting our soul qualities primarily through pictures, rather than words.

While reflecting on the main images of last weekend during a trip northward to Duluth for an American Association of University Women state convention, I became inspired by how much impact the organization is able to initiate by supporting women throughout our nation through education, scholarships, coordination and legal help.

Because over half a century ago I’d connected a Peace Corps volunteer who’d served with me in Venezuela with a former student I’d taught the year before I served my country overseas, they welcomed me for a several night stay in their home in Duluth and I didn’t even have to bring my own hammock!

We laughed a lot and they showed me the pond they’d built. After I’d viewed and discussed his computer composition of an incredible video he’d just completed of his Peace Corps experience in a mountain village in rural Venezuela, I phoned the National Peace Corps Association contact I’d met this past fall when he stopped by Albert Lea for a visit. He thought the organization would be very interested in seeing my friend’s creation.

The three of us who took the weekend trip to Duluth had Sunday morning breakfast together at an organic restaurant named the Duluth Grill. The outside entry sidewalk invited meal partakers to feast their eyes on how they grew their own organic produce on the outer edges of the surrounding sidewalk in raised garden beds bordered by arched trellises. I took some tasty veggie hash home with me for my husband to try and hope the idea could be shared with Albert Lea eating places.

Back home, I continue to appreciate my connections with both my meditation group and my co-mentoring elementary school partner to help me be able to enjoy shared time, even though I could be ruminating mainly about health issues. My heart doctor says he can no longer locate my erratic heartbeat, and he suggests dropping an expensive medication, which prompts me to want to give him a hug.

The same week  my bone doctor tells me my bone density has decreased and she wants to put me on another expensive medication and also says I have tendonitis. Then I run into a friend at a garden center, who shares that his bones are so porous, he has broken his foot several times simply by putting weight on it. Just think, if I hadn’t slipped on the ice in January and broken my wrist, I wouldn’t have discovered as quickly my decreased bone density.

Since I exercise in eight different morning classes each week, I probably move more than most my age, but activities like I’ve mentioned here help me keep a positive attitude. My weekly co-mentoring is shared learning experiences. My 9-year-old friend and I went to the local historical museum together dressed up  wearing hats for the annual tea party. On the way home, she pointed out two orange cones tucked under the blue playground ladder at Lakeview School. We took a detour there and discovered a mama duck that built a nest in what she considered a safe place for her hatchlings. And others are helping her, just like in our community.

 

Sara Aeikens is an Albert Lea resident.