Breaking Down These Walls.

When I started my blog, I never imagined that so many people would actually read it. Some say that I am a fantastic advocate for people living with exceptionalities, but I write to spread a message of love. I write to spread a message of acceptance. I write to spread a message of hope, because heaven knows, we need more of it in this world.

For me, watching and reading the news is extremely disheartening, and I can bet that it is the same for many of you as well. The world is full of war, an abundance of hatred and judgement harboured by individuals towards minorities. Minorities who are just trying to find a place in this world. People are being persecuted for something that we supposedly encourage, which is being unapologetically ourselves. People are committing acts that I don’t understand. I don’t understand how something so extreme can be justified, and the truth is, I honestly don’t believe that we will ever know exactly why these things happen.

This week, I had the life changing opportunity to attend a ‘Blanket Exercise’. This is something that is difficult to understand, unless you have experienced it. If you ever have a chance to attend a blanket exercise, I encourage you to sieze the opportunity. I won’t go into detail, but as I sit down to write this, I am overcome with emotion. I am ashamed. I am angry. I am guilty.

The Blanket Exercise focuses on the shocking and quite frankly, unsettling history of the Aboriginal Peoples. The Blanket Exercise teaches participants the Indigenous history that is rarely taught by having individuals take on the roles of the Indigenous People in Canada. It made me realize that we have so much work to do in regards to how we treat one another.

One of the questions that was repeatedly asked is, what can I do to change this?

The change must start with us, even if it means that others do not share the same beliefs.

But what can we do? We can tear down these walls of racism, judgement and uncertainty using love as a weapon. I know this might sound ridiculous. It might sound like I’ve got my head up in the clouds. I know this certainly isn’t going to fix everything, but I do know from personal experience that love opens so many doors. It’s a release. It is realizing that although not a single human journey is the same, we have all experienced pain and heartbreak in all different forms. This realization is what allows us to feel empathy for people, something that we have no reason to be ashamed about. Empathy is a beautiful thing. It’s okay to cry. It’s completely okay to feel. This is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it is a sign of strength. Empathy promotes understanding. I think that this lack of understanding is largely due to the fact that so many of us are afraid of the unknown. People are afraid to ask questions because they don’t want to offend anyone. I cannot tell you how many times I have hid my emotions because I didn’t want to feel, and I did not want to make those I love upset either. The reality is, choosing not to address how we feel ultimately hinders us from moving forward and prevents change from happening.

It’s time we start listening. It’s time we start talking about these issues.

If you are interested in learning more about the Blanket Exercise workshop, please click on the link below: