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6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOLIDAY REFLECTIONS Memories of the deep north As I reflect on my younger years in the ever changing deep woods in the village of Good Hope Lake where my tribe is, the massive hills and mountains fill my memories with high trees of spruce and cedar. The wind was constantly whipping the high branches, making a whooshing noise. I remember the smells of smoked meat from the family smoke house filled with moose and salmon meat. Grandpa would sit and tell stories of moose and bear hunts long past in the deep woods. The days would go by but no one cared about the time. It was a lazy, soft atmosphere. Everyone cared only that spring would arrive and Canadian geese would fly over the village. There’s no other place in the United States like the North, including Northern Michigan. The North, in all parts, be it Michigan or Alaska, all have very similar ways, such as planning for that extra 30 minutes to put on and take off extra layers to keep one warm and CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 toasty. Time seems to slow down on dark winter days. Northern activities have become normalized, such as the winter games from Alaska or from Detroit — ice hockey and ice skating and skiing across the mountains of Northern Michigan. Here in Michigan, as well as other locations in the North, ice carving competitions pop up. There is a language among the northerners for what we call clothes. In the far north of Alaska, we wear mukluks with seal Prosperity and gratitude The focus of the holidays is sharing in the abundance of our labor and the harvest that mother nature provides. Many so-called weeds are tasty nutritional foods. The best bonus I ever received in appreciation for my work was a bottle of homemade dandelion wine. It was delicious. If you know my writing, you know I play with the basics of life from many perspectives and adventures. Distributing Groundcover from the Argus Farm Stop at 325 West Liberty is an adventure of interesting conversations — as well as learning that NO is an okay response from the many who cannot be distracted from their mission of coffee and groceries. Some conversations are so profound that I regularly think that freedom is growing rapidly. Will many of us bond and live in freedom at the next level? "Woke Up This Morning” (with my mind fixed on freedom) is a song from the 60s and 70s that played in my mind the week before the Groundcover open mic at the Makeshift Art Gallery on November 21. Those who attended saw me freeze with nothing of that song coming out. My Google search had one word wrong and took me to the ozone. I also blanked out at my first backup song that I sang at the 2024 open mic. No one remembered the name and I went back to the basics of the 60s with “Blesst Be the Tie That Binds,” using the Old English colloquial for Blessed. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 Back to the basics is something I reflect on and practice everyday. It is easy to learn that compassion and unconditional love is the best intention to live by. You also know that not everyone learns that, and those who do are easily distracted from that lofty goal by a host of obstacles. You can wake up with freedom on your mind and quickly get lost in compliance culture and the penalties that appear if you are not in compliance. Foreclosure for back taxes on my house in Detroit was a ten-year struggle that kept me from my Cuban family until I resolved it. That’s another story. Even if we have accepted the intention to benefit all beings without exception, of course we regularly forget. We need a community of likeminded persons and regular practice for this spiritual marathon. The gratitude shared by those on the path of liberation opens the gates of creativity and abundance. We all have something to share and the best gift of all is your presence. From that felt presence, whatever needs to be done gets done as we celebrate the sacred reality that surrounds us. The assumption that reality is sacred is unearthed by reflection and analysis. If you are a dedicated, secular humanist, you may come to another assumption. All assumptions need analysis and reflection. It should become clear related in the context of the whole, and only mindful awareness can give us the clues to make sense of the mystery before us. I found a University of Michigan T-shirt that said “Mindful Leader” on the back. I gave it to Khenpo Choephel in honor of his mindfulness teaching and practice at Karuna Buddhist Center which you can experience in the Upper Room of Bethlehem United Church of Christ, 423 S.Fourth Ave, on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. The most excellent result from my Argus conversations came when Kori Kanayama contacted Groundcover to find me. Kori is a Japanese heritage chef who does cooking workshops. I was quickly invited to one in Chelsea at Agricole. I rode the WAVE that goes to Chelsea from the Meijer store on Jackson Rd. It was a fully participatory cooking workshop where I was worked into the cookie-making and into the Miso Soup pot. And then we ate together; the work and the eating both were a community celebration. When I learned that Kori’s daughter that everything is Mai was singinging in a “Messiah” concert, I asked where, and was invited to the concert at St. Mary’s in Royal Oak. “The Messiah,” by George Frideric Handel, is the most famous oratorio of Western music and my parents used to break into it when I was young. It is performed often by music lovers who have practiced the art well. The best of Western civilization is presented as we consider what the West has to offer the world. The human voice is intimately explored in this oratorio and it is an honor to hear those who have mastered this tradition, especially sopranos and tenors who were the standouts in the concert. As we explore our voices and learn from those who have mastered this creative expression, we will grow in the unity of body, speech and mind. If you learn mantra practice you will connect with your sacred nature. I was given a copy of “Psycho-cybernetics” in the 60s, an important book on OM MANI PEME HUNG, the universal mantra that awakens your primordial capacity to be an awakened being, from mindful posture to mindful breathing and mindful awareness of stillness in motion. Explore your curiosity and become a Buddha! bottoms in the deep snow to keep the feet extra warm, but in my village we used snug snugs called socks for the feet. And across Canada many put tuques on their heads for winter along with their bear paw gloves. We northerners are what we love to do and how we choose to live in the North, such as driving skidoos and hunkering down in our ice fishing shacks to try and catch fish, and we call this fun. As I used to say “You know you're a lover of the North when …” (for example, when you love to ski or catch fish through a hole in the ice). Michigan is no different; only the truly hardy stay and show just how strong they truly are. The hardest thing is truly the ice. When I was in Alaska, I met a Yupik named Dam Lum who showed me on a river how to walk on ice; it was really the hardest thing I learned living in Alaska. You put your foot down and slide at a right angle to stop and do it all over again, step by step. I fell more times than I walked. He would walk Cindy's mukluks. right by me and laugh at me and my attempts at Yupik ice walking. He told me it was the first thing they learned as kids. The North is one big mystery of fun and excitement, so get off your chair and take a walk in the snow! Look at the trees on a night walk with a full moon and see the crystals of snow flicker and dance on the ground with each step you take. This is mother earth’s renewal time of deep self-reflection in the approach to the new year, 2026. DECEMBER 12, 2025

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