I wrote this post for September 30th, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a Canadian day set aside to honor the lost children, families broken, and the struggle for recovery of survivors of the mess and mistake of residential schools imposed on Indigenous peoples here by the foreign colonists.
The inner fight we all suffer from while enduring and aiming to conquer our demons can be much unforgiveness as drugs or alcohol.
More than only addiction to alcohol, drugs, nicotine, eating, or gambling, we can be addicted to money, power, anger, revenge, or unforgiveness;
It may not be our fault, but when anything takes us over and becomes a problem for us and our loved ones… It is a good time to ascend the 12 steps.
An addiction is a chronic dysfunction of the brain system that involves reward, motivation, and memory. It’s about the way your body craves a substance or behavior, especially if it causes a compulsive or obsessive pursuit of “reward” and lack of concern over consequences.
Someone experiencing an addiction will:
- be unable to stay away from the substance or stop the addictive behavior
- display a lack of self-control
- have an increased desire for the substance or behaviour
- dismiss how their behavior may be causing problems
- lack an emotional response
What Is Addiction? Definition, Signs, Treatment, and More (healthline.com)
In my previous posts, I’ve discussed sins, repentance, and forgiveness in regard to the processes of reconciliation between the Indigenous people, Canada, and the Vatican.
I believe that forgiveness CAN be offered to the Vatican by the Indigenous peoples of these colonised lands, and there have been steps made towards that.
Those who suffered the atrocities committed to them and their families, received several apologies, recognise some as sincere, and try to forgive, but we must remember that true recovery doesn’t begin until the negative feelings are purged. This damage likely takes generations of pain and need for recovery, but those who practice forgiveness heal much faster.
The elders who had their lives uprooted suffered destruction of their families, forced through religious training by hypocritical teachers, cultural languages, beliefs, and practices literally beat out of them, some even sexually abused, and lost loved ones, traumatically.
Many do not forgive. Others ask HOW can we forgive?
I’ve heard people express disappointment against the sincerity of the Vatican’s apology. The “Holy Roman Empire”, now called the Vatican, suffer money and power addictions themselves that filter down to their corporation the Roman Catholic Church.
I don’t believe Catholics are all evil people. Most members of their parishes try to be very good people. Including those IN the Vatican. But due to the severity of the crimes, motions must continue to be made BY the Vatican to seek reconciliation. You can’t just expect sweeping forgiveness by your victims. It takes patience.
It takes patience and doing what’s right. The Vatican should help the Canadian government compensate damages to the families of these scarred but loved People, who proved there was nothing wrong with their belief systems in the first place, before these evil schools were forced onto their communities.
The indigenous people were here first, they even helped the colonists, much to their ensuing destruction.
PEOPLE, try to recognise the benefits to letting go of your anger. I know much of what was lost can never be restored, although I see the People making great strides like languages being reclaimed, arts and cultural practices being revived. Keep it up.
But holding on to anger is as much an addiction as anything else.
Continued hatred causes divisiveness and further damages your families and nations here on Turtle Island, or whatever you call this sacred Land.
Acceptance and peace can is beneficial to all, including those doing the forgiving.
Seek help from Creator, Mother Earth, ancestors, nature, whoever or whatever helps you heal your inner self. We begin to heal after we admit that anger in itself is a problem, an addiction to dopamines that hurts us, and our families, much more than who we are angry at!
The thirst for more money, power, or even righteous anger are unhealthy addictions. If you are guilty, seek forgiveness, so ultimately, God may forgive you, and so you can forgive yourself. If you are a victim, forgive who hurt you. Forgive for the sake of this planet, healing, and freedom.
1. We admitted we were powerless over addiction — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The Twelve Steps | Alcoholics Anonymous (aa.org)
Wishing you much Love, hope, and healing.
Elaine.
If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why would anyone else follow you?
Be the example you need.
I have many names. “Peace Maker” is my Indigenous Spirit name given by the Elders of the People. Another Spirit name is Elainia, which means, “Land of Light”. Enlillie is my name from my first lifetime, reminded to me by Gods, this name I love, and it means, “Light Flower”.
I am a Canadian, a friend of God, an empathic woman with a timeless soul, driven to create more peaceful lives for those I meet through patience and understanding.
It feels really good to say, “I AM Peace Making”. I encourage you to claim that. Positive affirmations are good for the soul. Then together we have the faith to move mountains!
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