Sandi's Blog

Safe Place

 
I am awake, I am ALIVE (and actually feeling that way again) and yes, I am thankful.

Yesterday, not so much, as I battled some kinda little cold or flu bug. My energy and appetite had left the building but after a day of rest and self-care, I am back and all the more grateful for my healthy days … and my safe ones.

I have long said to my male friends that if a partner comments that he “makes her feel safe” that those words are an indication that someone in her past didn’t. It’s a serious comment and a huge indicator of her bottom line.

Don’t cross that line.

As a woman who knows all too well the feeling of being “unsafe”, I work diligently to create spaces that are. My home is my sanctuary, a place where criticism and condemnation have no place, and so too is this page.

My followers know attacking comments are instantly removed. Even comments in agreement with my post are removed if they attack another human or entity (or promote a stance I don’t personally agree with) and I do that for one simple reason (and it may not be the one you think).

I don’t do it because I am the “end all be all” expert (in fact, I often share content that isn’t mine).

I don’t do it because I want to create an echo chamber, surrounding myself only with those of the same view (that would numb me to reality and what other brothers and sisters deal with on the reg).

I do it … to keep this place safe.

Here my friend, you can read a thread and be inspired, rather than attacked. Here you won’t be offended if you are Indigenous nor attacked if you are non (unless things like being called non-Indigenous offend you, then you best go unpack that).

Here is a safe place for the marginalized, the racialized and the Indigenous, a designation that is rare for places online and in this country, and one that we the marginalized, racialized and Indigenous cherish.

So welcome to my page. Welcome to my lodge. Here you are cherished my Indigenous friends. Here true allies (or want-to-be allies) learn and respect, listening rather than imposing. Here you are safe.

Feels great, doesn’t it?!

And with that very happy thought, my workday begins. I pray you are healthy my friend of any colour. I pray you are happy, and I most definitely pray you are safe. I pray you too are diligently creating safe places for those you interact with, just as I pray for the day when “unsafe” becomes a concept, a theory, no longer a reality for anyone.

This I pray.
 

I love you!
HUGSSSSSSSS

Sandi
 

***This is an excerpt from Sandi’s most recent book, “I am Awake …”. available for purchase on her website or on Amazon.ca.***