Canadian Culture Shock Sparks Creativity :) Turning Cons Into Pros #mindsetmatters

I have not written a poem in forever....but sometimes our hardest times make us most creative and we just need to lean into that...and isn't that how we all rise from the ashes anyways?....isnt that the pattern behaviour we should look for?.....Our rising actions? ;) LOL

I titled this one:

“Built Different”

I grew up on the Mattagami River,

up in Northern Ontario

in the ol' gold mining bush land.

Not the suburbs. Not the skyscrapers.

Somewhere between Hudson + James Bays and Toronto*

Trees. Water. Small mining communities.

Many reserves nearby, where Indigenous Peoples

were sent with their families to 'settle'

Despite,

having been living Indigenously

and as one with the lands, waters and creatures

here on Turtle Island

long before Canada was ever 'Canada'

I saw early in life what survival looked like.

I saw how unreliable the leadership system was,

how unreliable the people of authority were,

how the lies

we were all being told about each other were destroying communities and relationships

how people could be so easily

corrupted,

by money,

this invented unnatural thing

Inevitably, I was working at 15.

Watching my parents grind

just to stay afloat

in a country that keeps getting more expensive.

So I made a plan.

Work hard. Work harder.

Study long. Study longer.

Survive financially and then thrive.

University wasn’t a dream

It was a strategy.

And when the debt came calling?

I didn’t fold. I left. Bye Felicia!

China. South East Asia. Australia. New Zealand and more!

Classrooms. Airports. Collaboration.

Learning. Growing. Experiencing.

World maps turned into a lived experience.

I saw exactly how big life actually was!

I saw so many worlds and communities and ways of life.

I was rubbing elbows with the best of the best in Education

Sharing, exchanging, receiving

all sorts of professional development,

new knowledge and news understandings.

Then I came home.

To Canada

My home and Native Land

And it felt… off.

Way off.

Where was Truth And Reconciliation?

Too much? Backup....

Where was the Truth?

Like the same old script:

Non-transparent-untruthful- unprepared

(unwilling? unknown?)

to care for the public,

politicians smiling,

talking in circles,

pissing on people

and calling it rain.

That kind of leadership?

That’s 1900s energy.

It's post 2025 now.

So my question isn’t

“why is this happening?”

It’s:

Why do Canadians keep electing people who think we’re too distracted to notice?

Why do Canadian politicians keep thinking we're too distracted to notice?

We don’t need better liars.

We need better leaders.

*Timmins Ontario - the traditional and territorial land of the Cree, Oji-Cree, Ojibway, and Algonquin Peoples. Howevever, today, it is also home to the communities of the Mattagami, Matachewan, Flying Post, Wahgoshig, Taykwa Tagamou, and Métis Peoples.