TRUST ROAD

My spiritual director inspired this blog post and new poem below.

We spoke yesterday after a difficult press conference held by BC First Nations: It was on the remains of Indigenous children found at a former residential school in British Columbia. The report was tough. So were the presentations afterwards: I was grateful for a chance to "debrief" with Fr. Morgan CSB.

In Canada, we are struggling with the remains of Indigenous children being recovered from mass grave sites at former residential schools. That said, I am not Indigenous, but I was deeply moved by stories told by Residential School Survivors at yesterday's powerful press conference. For me, the hardest and most hopeful story was told by the last survivor who spoke-- residential school survivor, Mona Jules.  

Continuing. Mona Jules spoke of taking the "Red Road" to reclaim her identity after residential school abuses. She too is in my poem. I do not understand elder Mona Jules' traumatic experience in residential school, but I can relate to trauma. And taking to the road (making an inner pilgrimage) to find the dream and sense of myself I have lost. 

Here is the poem:

Trust Road 

What if today there was a dirt road called trust? 

That every broken nation's heart could take? 

With a Service Centre at the end,

To re-fuel our lives and hearts with love! 

With old and new mile marker signs--

To surprise our blind and biased eyes, 

Reassuring all who seek, and dream, and roam. 

Counting down the miles until home?

Are we taking that dirt road today? 

Or paving over it?

 Cb. 

July 16, 2021, Scarborough 

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

(Image from Unsplash)


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