Bdote!

This past weekend I went to an orientation class for a walk I will take later this month. The walk is a Nibi walk from Lake Phalen, along Phalen creek, to where the creek meets the Mississippi River.  I tried to map the route but I had trouble.  On the map it appeared Phalen Creek just disappeared into nothing. Now I know why I had trouble. When the railroads came into Saint Paul a decision was made to divert the creek into a sewer pipe so the tracks could be built on solid ground. Because the water travels through a sewer instead of the earth, the water is more polluted than it needs to be.  There are plans to bring Phalen Creek back up again because they figure it will be 80% cleaner water if they do.  For this Nibi walk we do not have to go into the sewer.  An artist will explore the path of the submerged creek and mark the path we walk on the streets above with some kind of artwork. Nibi is the Anishinabe word for water. Nibi walks have been going on for centuries but I had never heard of them until recently. Another new word I learned at this orientation is Bdote.  Bdote is the sound newborns make when they make their first breaths.  In my life I have been lucky to hear the Bdote of 5 people. Actually I heard more than that because when you wait around in the visitor lounge of a maternity ward, you hear a lot of Bdote. I am not counting the Bdote of strangers. The five Bdotes I am counting are people in my life that I know and love.