Cowboy Coffee: A Reconciliation Conversation

  I see life like a ski hill.  We’re all standing at the top, waiting for life’s ride, deciding which run to choose, excited and scared about where it will take us.   If you’re white,  you’re thinking about things like… Should I go to post secondary education? Where will I live?  What job will I have?  Will I have a family? You can take any run that you like, really.  You may have challenges on each or, more likely, all of those runs but you still have choice.   You can pick the green run with its easy slopes. It’s the one most of us start off on as we get used to being adults.  Some of us graduate to harder runs quickly and some of us just stay here, comfortable with enjoying the ride for a while, not wanting to take bigger risks.   You can choose the BLUE run.  It’s got some longer, steeper slopes.  You may need to take a few runs to get used to the faster pace and you may even need some lessons to develop some...

  215 My heart is breaking. I know the pain of grieving the death of a child. I live with it daily.  It never leaves.  It never will.  I can’t begin to imagine the agony of having my child taken away from me to go to a boarding school far away.  I can’t imagine that child not coming back...ever.  I can’t imagine the frustration and trauma of not being told what happened to them, if they are alive or dead. I can’t imagine waking up every day to that same reality with no conclusion.   I can’t imagine that I would survive that - emotionally, spiritually.  I believe it would destroy me.   I know the only way I got through my experience was with the support of my family, my friends and my community. I can’t imagine how I would have survived without that support.   A big question that has repeatedly popped up throughout the global pandemic of this past year is how we can continue to support each other when we ourselves are drain...