For These Words are True

and He said to me,
"write this down for these words are true"

Free and unencumbered access to public media has sensitized people to the exhaustive criminality beleaguering Ukraine's peace, sovereignty and security. Their desire to rid Ukraine of a domestic criminal regime has spilled the beans on a global tectonic crisis. The truth of the matter is that the tentacles of a parasitic fungus has, for centuries, drawn the lifeblood of Ukraine's prosperity, leaving her beleaguered and vulnerable. How is it possible to keep a steady, balanced hand and maintain equilibrium given these circumstances?

ivanna ososkalo

The ancestors sensed a great emotional vertigo was upon the Ukrainian people, and in their wisdom, conveyed subtle but powerful antidotes for their healing. There is Great Wisdom to be shared in community! Like public servants, teachers, nurses, construction workers, and labourers we all have a vested interest!  Where ignorance abounds, heinous evil can lurk - a spiritually exhausting fraud!

the wheel of truth -
 the "Alpha and Omega"

Everything, however is relationally connected in circles, swirls, triangles, crosses and ...they are the beautiful symbols we cherish in paska, babka, pysanky and every other art form of traditional Ukrainian culture.

the wheel of Peace in the world
touches everyone

The ancients left signs of their wisdom, everywhere, and their aim is true!

Pressure, darkness, exhaustion, isolation, ignorance, and the long, cold, dark winter may soon be over!  The weak remnants of darkness will fade,  and long anticipated Spring of Hope will bring Bright Resurrection into every dark corner!

the unblinking eyes of honesty,
"All seeing"

May the Resurrection bring peace, here and everywhere!  Happy Paska! Khrystos Voskres!

Shaping Community with the Pysanka







amk2012

Having Ukrainian cultural elements in my life, it is easy to take for granted what others consider absolutely beautiful. Embroideries, ceramics, weavings, but this season is the time for the Ukrainian Easter Egg - the pysanka.



Recently got an invitation to teach pysanky to the children at the community school nearby. Now that Ukraine is a focus in the Alberta Social Studies in both Grades 3 and 5, it is not only an extra to "do Ukrainian things", it is a curricular expectation. But it is assumed that everyone teaching has an expertise in every aspect.....could one conceivably have expertise in everything? Mindful to focus on the curricular expectations, I am glad to accept the invitation.



http://aroundnewyorkin80worlds.wordpress.com/author/emilyparkey/

What an opportunity to shape the minds, hearts and sensibilities of a new generation! I started by telling them when my blonde, blue eyed ancestors came to Canada, and why. A little lesson on the map opens opportunities to so much discussion, about Europe, about neighbors, about the land and its chernozem fertility, the people and the culture, and of course, the economic opportunities or deficits.

Then to tell them about Ukraine's ancestral forests and steppes, rivers and Black sea, the bees, the honey, the beeswax - using every gift nature provides. Followed by terms like "non-text features" - the symbols that convey meaning over time, space, and language. Then expressing the belief that every person's culture has beauty, and reminding the children they have yet to discover their ancestral tree - perhaps a tidbid about geneology. After all, every generous contribution to Canada and her future actually shapes and molds what will come!

There are a large variety of videos online to explain the process of pysanka writing, but I found the children really wanted the basic traditional designs first. But to begin the learning, I teach. The raw egg is life, a seed bearing a life in a shell that breathes. Inscribing onto the shell creates a talisman of good wishes for the future. Their first pysanka will be the traditional 8 pointed star rosette, or sun-god with its rays of yellow, orange and red, blue/green rain drops, decorated with the red curled horns of plenty (plenty of food, prosperity and wealth), all on the black background of eternity. Precious, the pysanka will live, fulfill its mandate in the world, and eventually dry to dust, its shell will return to the earth that brought it life.

Father Paul     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzVicHadJfc

Gentleman - brief comment about the sun god  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6NFtX8XNUY

How to make a Beginner Pysanka (short and concise   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqkKrbkqf8

A volunteer who generously shares the gifts of their time, treasure and above all their unique talents, is always a welcome guest it seems. Note to self - tell them about the Pysanka in Vegreville, Alberta and remind them that one in 5 Albertans has some Ukrainian ancestry! Maybe they are Ukrainian too!
http://www.vegrevillechamber.com/pysankastory.htm

For more online material about pysanka writing, follow the links at http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/high/Sue-Pysanky.htm

Home Decorating - Ukrainian Infused

amk2012

Finding the inspiration to decorate your home can be tricky - it is hard to wear someone else's design.  However, if you love Ukrainian culture, folklore, and arts, perhaps it is easier than you think?





amk2012

In an earlier blog post, I wondered what my daughters should take from our family home when they move.  An embroidered pillow, paintings from our collection of Ukrainian artists, and a bowl of pysanky - these came to mind instantly.  But there is so much more! I hope their homes feel Ukrainian too!
http://ukrainiancalgary.blogspot.ca/2012/07/hope-springs-eternal.html



amk2012

A friend recently recommended I pick up Ukrainian Style, a book co-authored by an American mission traveler in Ukraine and an interior designer - and I was pleasantly surprised to have discovered another admirer, not only of Ukrainian culture, but its truly human soul! A beautiful, hard-cover publication, Ukrainian Style exhuberantly celebrates Ukrainian arts in home decor.  Love it!


The book is beautiful beautiful enough for a coffee table book, but really, really much more! Whether you are interested in expressing your sense of beauty through Ukrainian arts in your home, or you are drawn by the professional interior decorating advice, delicious recipes and cultural references, this volume is a lovely tabletop companion.   The photos are just spectacular, and of course, a picture can tell at least a thousand words!

Linda Wicklund and Alecia Stevens are celebrating village life and bringing it home in Ukrainian Style. Referencing great Ukrainian museums and resource people in the Eastern US it is evident the authors have decided to represent Ukrainian folk traditions and fine arts rather accurately.  And I appreciate that proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Zolotonosha Youth Center, in Zolotonosha, Ukraine.  In this way, the authors have dedicated this volume to Ukraine's future - its children!

To purchase this lovely book contact www.yevshan.com or www.UkrainianStyle.com.   A wonderful way to infuse Ukrainian style into your home decor - and pass it on!

Hope Springs Eternal





My embroidery

Our daughter just moved away from the comforts of our home in Calgary, and into a new life far away from the embrace of the familiar - her community, friends and family. As parents, we know the human journey involves change, and her place isn't really that far from home. But if you look at it as another emigration from the "homeland" it takes on a hugely different significance.

The ancestral homeland of Ukraine sits at the crossroads of many important travel, economic and political influences.  It has been so, since forever, it seems.  So, with international opportunities beaconing from every corner of the globe, Ukrainians, like every other people, have chased, emigrated, resettled, re-acclimatized, and re-assessed their "cultural inheritance".  I mean that quite broadly, though.  " Pobutove zhittya" is probably a better descriptor than "culture", but even that needs explaining.

In this particular context I am defining culture as "everything people can pass on to ensure their progeny thrive in the future".  So when helping pack some of her things, we had to anticipate her needs, in the short term, and perhaps longer.  Then to look at all of our collected stuff, and consider what would be hers to inherit. Besides the coffee maker and towels, what could we give her to sustain her, comfort her, and prepare her for life - for it happens without our invitation.  Change happens, but somebody recently told me, it is the small stuff that reveals what a person is made of.  If so, what truly authentic messages will her "stuff" reveal about her ancestral inheritance?  About us, her parents, grandparents, great grandparents?

I was speaking with a cousin in Winnipeg, and she suggested that every child of hers would have a newly embroidered pillow, for the living room sofa.  Taking a traditional pattern, going monochromatic with the color scheme, graphic and modernly finished.......

One of her grandparents gave her a painting referring to home-ie. Ukraine. A montage of events around church, the sights, smells, and spirituality a thousand years or two in the making.  Memories of blessing baskets, eating kutia, that kind of thing.

Another family member wanted to send jars of borsch.  Food, they say, is the most tenacious of the cultural elements, because it hangs around in the memories of home, comfort and love.  Actually, my daughter makes better varenyky than I do, but nobody makes better jam than baba.

And, knowing how much fun it can be to move big bulky stuff, I sent pysanky which can sit in a bowl on the counter to remind her of the many hours we sat together dreaming of what the future would bring. The "masterpiece in the hand", the "ikon of the universe" may prove to be a conversation piece, perhaps someday someone will ask what the whirls, crosses, circles, deer, wheat, and flowers signify?

What does a family give their child who is leaving, not just an airplane trip away, but a world away, like my great grandparents did over a century ago?  What "stuff" sustained them to the degree that many generations later, we still identify with their journey? Many Ukrainian immigrations ago it was said that a person could survive with two books in hand, the Bible and Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar!   How about your family and the travails that have brought them to their Ukrainian Calgary adventure?  What really important message is hidden in the gifts you will leave in your packing trunk?