If my grandmother would have been born within the Aboriginal culture, for sure she would have been a wise elder and perhaps a Shaman. But she was a humble woman living  by la rivière Yamaska; a village healer in many ways being a mid-wife, a go-to person if someone was sick from newborn to elderly. She had herbal remedies and others passed down to her from her mother and an old village doctor.

To this day, I still miss her when I am sick. For some reason her hand on my forehead and her homemade chicken broth comforted me. She spent hours and days with mothers in labour, sat by a dying person’s bed many late nights and even doctors called on her for help. Most people called called her Garde Daudelin OR GrandMaman.

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At Carpe Diem our host tells us about a Mongolian shaman named Batbayar.  A beautiful story you can read more here of a Shaman and his apprentice. Our host wrote this in honour of the passing of this shaman.

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whispering leaves
telling all wisdom of the steppes
cry of an eagle © Chèvrefeuille

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To make this interesting for me, I searched where there were ealgles in Québec. In Northern and Eastern Québec there are many surprisingly, golden eagles. In the Gaspé Penninsula, residents are helping researchers with sightings as they are very proud of the eagle in their territory. (Gaspé is where Kerouac’s parents were from).

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I have heard from aboriginal youths that the Northern Lights are their ancestors from the “other side”, spirits revealing they are well.

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golden eagle cries
shaman’s loss mourned over
lac Natashquan

© Tournesol ’14

spirits announce
shaman’s safe entrance 
aurora borealis

© Tournesol ‘14

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai “Helpful”*

To read and hear more about the Golden Eagle in Québec click here.