Truth and Reconciliation

We humans have and continue to inflict horror and cruelty on our fellows.

To witness it is to drown in despair. To live at the effect of it, at the most egregious, intractable effect of cruelty, I can only reach deep into my well of empathy, using the minor acts of injustice, asymmetrical power and systemic bullying that many of us have felt.

We must confront the truth of our bloodied, exploitative, colonising and injustice past. All of it. All of us.

And then we must reconcile. Find a way to be with each other, to listen to the stories, feel them in our bones and not drown in guilt or shame, which are emotions that will disease us, leaving us paralysed and toxic. Rather to witness. Fully.

There are thousands of stories. Stories of racial violence. Stories of gendered violence. Slavery, past and present. Sex trafficking. The legal system working to destroy truth, charged with making good people bad, or very broken. The wars of men, where women and children are the biggest casualties. Big business eating love by addicting on purpose, or unflinchingly devastating our natural world. Generational poverty, often deliberately created off the back of racism, classism or the caste system. The shunning of the ably different, where the narrative can only be described as modern eugenics.

Reconciliation is urgent. Finding pathways today for people to come together as witnesses to one another. 

From a ground of being and acceptance, where an invitation to trust, even though it feels terrifying, is critical, we weave a future. One small thread at a time. 

A small, tentative step taken, then learning. Reinforce trust. Another step taken. Learning from each other, an upward, steady, slow spiral of collective respect.

Knitting broken bones and hearts, weaving a song of humanity that births dignity for all.

This is the work of truth and reconciliation. It is urgent work.

Photo August 17th 2023, Article written May 24th 2025