Pen in Hand

Before reading, I take a 4,000 step walk
to the ocean and watch the waves lap
onto the shore in the early morning sun.

I wake up in the morning, hoping that I can keep my pen in my hand and read my way through a book that it in its early stages of development, not Rebecca’s book but one she is editing.

I stop at the words in another language and I try to pronounce them.

Finally I go Rebecca to have a short Secwepemc language lesson – on less than 5 words. But it is not fun to read the pages and not hear a word, but only see the letters of it. Now I just slow down at that point and say the word out loud, syllable by syllable, trying to find a place for it in my head.

Great way to spend the morning – catching typos and grammatical errors and hearing myself wrestle with sounds I am not used to making.

Kwséltkten
Secwépemc-kt
Sucwentwecw
Sewkwénmten

Yes. Hard for me to pronounce.

Arta