A Garden with Roots: The Peace Garden

Sweet Comforts

Soft breezes and the floral scents of the garden have at last arrived at the studio at Canadian Online Guitar Lessons & Services. Nicotinia perfume from massive stalks and enormous leaves and towering ivory and royal purple blooms greets the courier drivers dropping off occasional items.

Take a few more steps with orange maned marigolds as organic deterrants, and yes the camomile stalks are bare, only to find the sweet fragrant blooms drying peacefully in an almond-coloured wooden container.

Then? A glimpse or two of tens of strawberry plants emerging slowly into mature plants nestled on the deck high up, ready for transplanting.

Another look, and even more Ukrainian seedlings have emerged into adults: dahlia, columbine, coriander, African Daisies, amongst the Canadian nasturtium and alyssum and other goodies. That’s the deck!

A Garden with Roots: The Peace Garden

My Baba would be proud of the rebellious peace garden that I anticipated over a year ago, ordering many seeds from a Ukrainian farmer, as would my great grandparents. Due to being so upset by the tensions in 2021, I refused to order Russian tarragon, and instead bought Mexican. The humour I told my gardening group, which actually was not truly a joke, but more double entendre, was that Russian Tarragon is “invasive.”

My great grandfather delivered the local community Ukrainian babies in Honeymoon, Saskatchewan, many years back, and his parents, my great-great grandparents were Ukrainian violin makers in Ukraine who had never heard me play the violin, but who had inspired me at age 4 to take on music as tradition, as had my father’s classical pianist cousin later, who once had played Carnegie Hall.

My great grandparents had come to Canada as refugees well over 100 years ago in the 1920ish timeframe escaping famine imposed on them by the Russians. So, sadly this was the all-knowing reason for my pessimistic predictive action during pre-war tensions in 2021 and 2022 during my 12 film wins when I was focused as an overwhelmed TV Director/filmmaker. The war tensions and threats at that time were making me try to purchase as many Ukrainian seeds as I could.

To honour my dear ¼ Ukrainian heritage and my great grandparents’ complex farming and creativity with their home building; ornate homes from mud and straw and other materials. To cherish their memory, I planted, and yes it was also likely a response from inter-generational inherited family rooted trauma.

Regarding inter-generational trauma and other horrific events like the Holocaust. Well, as a teen, I had even been mentored in recognizing the signs of fascism by a Nazi gas camp survivor who had refused to ever remove his Nazi tattoo. It was a large black-ish green number on his wrist and hand. He trained me for about 6-10 hours over several visits with my boyfriend at the family home on how to recognize signs of tyranny and what fascism was and why it was truly evil, horrific and sociopathic.

I knew that my Baba or Aunt Irene, had they lived to see this 2022 Russian-Ukraine war, that they would have cried every night, and felt traumatized and persecuted like many of us do with Ukrainian roots. Or by those recent immigrants to Canada who have escaped the Ukraine in 2022-23, just like 100 years ago. Many of us are just burying our current emotions. They, my ancestors and relatives would understand the healing and longevity purpose of the garden.

It has driven home why extremism of either the left or the right politically is never acceptable, and why many of us feel there is no party to vote for that you can trust anymore in Canada post-pandemic. Many politicians lie, and never act responsibly. Determining truth from illusion or fabrication is like a strange twisted frustration, a censored Orwellian-inspired scene.

To wrap up these thoughts, note that all those with Ukrainian roots are hurting.

My suggestion on how you can help?

Offer a kind ear to those who are Ukrainian that may need it, and reflect carefully about current events, war should not be a death business. Your deepest thoughts are required to help us problem-solve a peaceful solution. On a final note. I recommend that you study the signs of fascism to recognize what they are and what they mean. One of the first signs of fascism in Hungary was rampant uncontrolled inflation, racism, and especially, the legislated starvation by government of the disabled and seniors. Know the signs. Know tyranny. Google, ‘hegemony.’ Now a more lighter side…

Nanaimo Radio Show, ‘What’s Next’ Stolen from Vehicle

My dear friend Tom Roden accidentally forgot to lock the car door, and much to his surprise, his radio show was stolen! The program had just been aired on Tom's show, CHLY 101.7 FM's program 'What's Next.' The show was on CD, not on a commercial CD, but a CD that had been recorded on to for the purpose of radio broadcast. An avid record collector, the 92 year-old Roden was vinyl-hunting at the time.

Luckily it happened after the show and not before!

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 MUCH 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚...

𝑻𝒐𝒎 𝑹𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔, 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍.

�� 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑻𝒐𝒎, "𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑰𝑺 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅! 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒕!! 𝑷𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝟗𝟐 𝑰𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑰𝑹𝑬 𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑳𝑫!

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗼𝗺, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗠 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 keriliemcdowall(at)gmail.com 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗶𝗺. 𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝗿, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘂𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘂𝗽!!!!!

For amusing stories and other coming music articles from writer, guitar instructor, filmmaker and recording artist coach Kerilie McDowall, sign up for the 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒁𝒆𝒏 newsletter e-blog: https://inthezen.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Here is a circa 2016 photo when I was still broadcasting in radio (1998-2015) with Tom visiting on my old 17 year jazz radio show Rhythm'a'ning.

Tom is my early jazz mentor and he and his wife, What's Next co-producer Yvonne, are like family to me.

Tom and I both agreed that we should post and share this story because we found it so funny!!!!

𝗔𝗻𝗱 ...

He tells the best jazz stories of anyone I know! Yes, he used to be a fellow-musician in his youth. I think that it honestly takes a musician to understand music just as thoroughly as he does! One of my fave couples; Tom and Yvonne are just full of wonderful wisdom and are some of the most fun and clever people that I know! You can catch Tom’s radio show Mondays at 11 am on CHLY 101.7 FM in Nanaimo.

Contact Kerilie McDowall: [email protected] 

Cell: 1-250-668-3589 Book a free 15 minute workshop or guitar/film/writing lessons or coaching information session or trial: https://calendly.com/kerilie/guitar-lessons-workshops-writing-publicity-media-contact

Stay tuned, more stories, music, the occasional interview, and more coming to you from In the Zen as I settle into holiday to the beach weather!