A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". In response, she wrote this moving poem as a tribute:
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| Ilara and her dad Michael. |
On Wonder
Awe-struck;
We are shaped and held so
intimately
by the stories that we
are told, and
that we tell each other;
Their words weave us together,
stitching souls into the
images
that define us.
It feels like
just yesterday;
Myself as a child,
pleading with my Papa
to tell me a story
about when he was my age;
I would listen,
wide-eyed and totally enthralled.
When I was old enough to read,
he started typing up his stories;
Grand adventures of travel
and love and
miraculous happenings;
I would ingest his words,
enchanted; so proud
to be his daughter.
Now, many years later.
his book in front of me,
newly printed for proof-reading,
I feel a strange sensation,
almost like vertigo,
as events and experiences
that correspond with
both our stories
are laid in front of me
once again;
To what extent
do our stories define us,
I wonder?
To what extent
do the words we see and hear
shape our destinies,
our DNA?
Most of this book is fully
embedded in my memory; not word for word,
but story by story.
I’ve walked the same pathways,
nearly fifty years later,
to recapture the awe of
first hearing these tales
of my Papa’s childhood; I’ve relived
the memories with him,
From climbing the cliffs of
Crystal Falls to
Hemodialysis and being so close
to death we can hear our
ancestors speaking to
Mural painting in church basements.
In search for our own
creative powers;
Even my signature is
framed by
the three stars that
inspired him to paint his
“Trinity Mural”,” when he was
almost my age”, in which
he unconsciously
(at the time)
portrayed the Divine Feminine that I
so purposefully seek to embody
in my words and images.
Yet our stories continue, so
intimately
woven together with
so many lives
that I am prompted to
question the spaces
between beings,
and am left
Awe-Struck.
Ilara is an Edmonton-based writer, visual artist, community builder, and seeker of wisdom in the little moments. She has been a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities, having lived with chronic conditions her entire life, and spent many of her teen and early adult years working and living in communities for adults with disabilities while always stretching to pursue her own creative spirit.
Ilara now works as the Director of Religious Education for Westwood Unitarian Congregation and is an active member of Assiniboia Community Housing Co-operative. She is inspired by the people in her life, a love of synchronicity, and a passion for digging into the depths of who she is and how things are connected. She is fueled by a passion for people, peace, and a yearning for the ineffable sense of balance of power that she believes is still possible somehow.
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