Cabin Radio's Megan Miskiman spent weeks struggling to write about the mental health effects of this wildfire season – till she realized all the effects were happening to her.
Hi Megan, I am a Yellowknifer now a climate refugee living in a tent camp with long-time friends in the Fort Providence campground. This is our theme song around our climate refugee camp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fEtBo_H9zw How is our mental health? Not bad if we stick to the 'living day to day' mantra. But if we look beyond that we begin to rail at the lack of basic respect for citizens shown by those in charge of managing this crisis. Respectful leadership would be giving us hope and encouragement by sharing honest, factual information and anticipated timelines and target dates. But they don't show us respect! So to manage our anger, we look for good things day to day. The good things we find everyday are the good people of Fort Providence who show us such kindness and compassion, and daily walks with our dogs.
"Our bodies can't withstand the vigilance and the chronic tension that this naturally creates." This quote really landed hard. Much of the summer has been spent in a state of vigilance, checking air quality and smoke forecasts and windy and weather and highway conditions and NWT Fire and so on. For the first week after evacuating, my 5 year old would want to check the air quality each morning.
This state of being also reminded me of the early months of the pandemic. The vigilance and uncertainty. Each person I've mentioned that to has concurred.
The comments about nasty flu strike me. I have the same type of flu since day 1 of evacuation. I don't have appetite, past two werks have been a brain fart. I got back to my home routine yesterday such as waking up ealier, doing cardio and yoga and ended up the day with flu symptoms flaring high back. I could not repeat the same routine this morning as body was needing more rest. I'd love to know if other people are going through the same thing and what they have done to get back on track. I long to get back to my former energized self.
We, my wife and son, are doing well and are staying with family in Edmonton. Our Insurance Company has advised us that our travel expenses will be covered. We are also thankful for the people of Alberta who have welcomed so many of us. Hopefully we can give all of them free fishing licences when next they visit us in Yellowknife.
A big thank-you to all you folks at Cabin Radio as well.
Hi Megan, I am a Yellowknifer now a climate refugee living in a tent camp with long-time friends in the Fort Providence campground. This is our theme song around our climate refugee camp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fEtBo_H9zw How is our mental health? Not bad if we stick to the 'living day to day' mantra. But if we look beyond that we begin to rail at the lack of basic respect for citizens shown by those in charge of managing this crisis. Respectful leadership would be giving us hope and encouragement by sharing honest, factual information and anticipated timelines and target dates. But they don't show us respect! So to manage our anger, we look for good things day to day. The good things we find everyday are the good people of Fort Providence who show us such kindness and compassion, and daily walks with our dogs.
"Our bodies can't withstand the vigilance and the chronic tension that this naturally creates." This quote really landed hard. Much of the summer has been spent in a state of vigilance, checking air quality and smoke forecasts and windy and weather and highway conditions and NWT Fire and so on. For the first week after evacuating, my 5 year old would want to check the air quality each morning.
This state of being also reminded me of the early months of the pandemic. The vigilance and uncertainty. Each person I've mentioned that to has concurred.
The comments about nasty flu strike me. I have the same type of flu since day 1 of evacuation. I don't have appetite, past two werks have been a brain fart. I got back to my home routine yesterday such as waking up ealier, doing cardio and yoga and ended up the day with flu symptoms flaring high back. I could not repeat the same routine this morning as body was needing more rest. I'd love to know if other people are going through the same thing and what they have done to get back on track. I long to get back to my former energized self.
So bored in Grande Prairie. When not working it's hard on the mental health and anxiety to go this long
We, my wife and son, are doing well and are staying with family in Edmonton. Our Insurance Company has advised us that our travel expenses will be covered. We are also thankful for the people of Alberta who have welcomed so many of us. Hopefully we can give all of them free fishing licences when next they visit us in Yellowknife.
A big thank-you to all you folks at Cabin Radio as well.
Brian