This Little Light Of Mine: Addena's Substack

Welcome back.  I’m so very happy that you joined me once again to hear about what’s been going on with and around me. 

Thanks for letting me share some thoughts with you, and giving me the opportunity to “shine a little light” on people, places, and things that intrigue me.

Most importantly, thank you for your patience for waiting for this September month’s issue to come to your Inbox over a week overdue.

What was happening in September? 

We were totally bogged down because we moved!!  

I did think about You All this month though, and worried about getting a Newsletter out for you.  However, I had so many writing commitments and other tasks (besides unpacking) I was honestly overwhelmed.  Those are some of the reasons this issue is so late.  

You wouldn’t believe how much stuff we had to lift, and move around, and pile, and unpack, and sort out.  We have to throw things away, sell things, and donate things. The piles of boxes and bins are starting to thin out now, but at the beginning of the month every room in the house was piled with boxes and bins.  Ahhhhhh!!!!!

Those photos above show you part of the “overwhelming factor”. 

It hasn’t been long since we’ve moved here, so we haven’t had time to check out the town and discover all around, but I’ll let you know about what cool things I discover when I do.

We are only three blocks from the Okanagan Lake.  Its huge!   It is well known for tourist travels because it has 30 beaches throughout the region. Okanagan Lake spans 84 miles (North from Vernon) to Penticton in the South and Kelowna sits about halfway.  The East and West sides of the lake are connected by the (gigantic) William R Bennett Bridge.

We miss the ocean, and we miss Vancouver Island, but this city is beautiful, and some of the neighbours in our new community here in Kelowna have done so many nice things to make us feel welcome.  They leave cut flowers on our doorstep, come over and cut our lawn when they are cutting theirs, bring us homemade bread and Cinnamon Buns, and bring us over lots of their garden bounty.  Two days ago, when we arrived home from a visit to Vancouver, for our daughter April’s 3-day Birthday celebration events, we found this (beautiful) assembled puzzle a neighbour left on our porch.  

No note accompanied the puzzle, but whoever made it for us and left it for us knows we love Jamaica.

(Speaking of Jamaica, we can’t wait to go this year. The countdown is on: 54 days to go!)

This month, because I did so much work on editing, it thankfully meant that   I didn’t have time to watch TV.  What a relief that proves to be.                     

I don’t mind spending some time catching a few weekly TV series, and I love stuff on Brit Box, but I find watching Politics and watching the News so damn depressing!  Especially Politics.

I find that most of what goes on in politics boggles my mind.  Watching the breaking news stories  unfold, I get so furious and sad… so sad.  This applies especially to what is happening in US political news. 

For example:  I can’t understand why almost 50% of American voters would support and vote for a proven: Racist, Homophobic, Narcissistic, Ignorant, Pathological-Lying, Hatemongering, Self-centred, Sociopathic, Misogynist, Xenophobic, Sex Abusing, Fascist.  Can you? 

In the past few years I’ve lost, or rather I’ve chosen to cut a few people out of my life, that I thought were Friends over… you guessed it: politics.           

I choose to completely cut out of my life those people who support Trump and think that his Racism and the hateful lies (he and all his supporters and cultists spread) are acceptable. They are not!  They are dangerous and divisive, and like a Virus they can quickly spread all over the world and make our societies and our communities sick.

I choose to spend my time with positive, hopeful, and caring people. People who try to understand and celebrate our differences.  People who choose Love, and Compassion, and Hope, and strive to achieve Understanding amongst us, and a way to find Peace!

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What else happened of the month in September?

September 30^th , in Canada is National Day for Truth And Reconciliation

September 30^th  is also known as Orange Shirt Day.  

Orange Shirt Day is a movement that began on Sept. 30^th, 2013, when Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor from the Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation shared with the public about the trauma that residential school caused her.  It was then in 2013 that Orange Shirt Day was born after - Phyllis shared her childhood story of her new orange shirt — gifted to her by her grandma — being taken from her at age six, on her first day at the St. Joseph's Mission in the early 1970s. The day is commemorated to continue to raise awareness of Indigenous residential school experiences.   

Phyllis Webstad is the founder and CEO of the Orange Shirt Society.

The term, Residential Schools, refers to an extensive school system set up by the Canadian government and administered by various churches.  Those church run schools had the nominal objective of educating Aboriginal children but also the more damaging and equally explicit objectives of indoctrinating them into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living, and then assimilating them into mainstream Canadian society.

The Residential School System operated from the 1880s into the closing decades of the 20th century. The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Aboriginal heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. Children were severely punished if these, among other strict rules were broken. 

One primary objective of the Residential School System’s removing and isolating children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, was to assimilate them into the dominant culture. The second objective, based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal, was (as was infamously said) “to kill the Indian in the child.” 

On Orange Shirt Day, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was devastatingly harmful and has no place in our country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, offered an official apology, for Residential Schools in Canada on June 11^th , 2008.

Orange Shirt Day is a time and opportunity for community to recognize not only historic harms, but also the intergenerational impacts and ongoing violence Indigenous communities continue to face. During Orange Shirt Day, we are encouraged to wear Orange to show honour and remembrance of the Indigenous and First Nations children who were sent away to boarding schools.   

Here in B.C. and in many parts of the country we hold events and ceremonies that occur well on into the month October.  These events most often include discussions about the history and experience of Residential Schools and their survivors.  They include panels, group sharing’s, and teachings.  Some also include evenings of poetry, music, and art that reflects the resilience and history of boarding school victims, survivors, and their descendants 

If you don’t already know, you can make it a goal to learn about the Residential School’s implementation of their policies, and what was really behind their reasoning was for trying to erase the pride of cultural heritage, the language, the Spiritual beliefs and Elders knowledge, of the children forced into their schools.  And think about this:

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When I think about the deliberate callousness and cruelty prevalent in the Residential School systems it sadly reminds me of the systems of Slavery we had in our history in the United States, and in Canada. 

Slavery implemented similar tactics of trying to break the pride and break the Spirits of my ancestors.  Some of slavery’s practices and objectives were also designed to remove and isolate children from the influence of their families and keep them from learning about their traditions and cultures.  Slavery’s psychology was to dehumanize children and adults and break their spirts and eliminate any hopes for change in their situation or any hopes they could attain freedom. These subjugation tactics weren’t only used on the adults, they were also used to “kill the African in the child”. 

I believe it is so important we, of all cultures, research and learn about our ancestral traditions and our ancestral knowledge.  We should learn about the power and dignity of our peoples’ and try to capture that power and positive energy again.  It is important that we find and keep our Drums and our ceremonies and traditions, and if they were lost, adopt and adapt new ones for ourselves. 

For the past 25 years or longer, our daughter April has encouraged our family and friends to adopt the traditions and ceremonies of Kwanza.  Sharing this new tradition is one way we learned to share Ceremony, and share the history, knowledge, and the Principals and Traditions of our Ancestral Mother’s, Grandmother’s, and Grandfather’s .

Adopting new traditions and ceremonies could be a life choice for ourselves as we try to still honour and respect our lost cultural traditions.  It can also and help us learn Respect other people’s traditions and Ceremonies.  

♥️

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🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Some of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences in my wonderful Jamaica paradise and with my Jamaica Family/Friends:

Jamaica Soothes my Soul

Jamaica is my Soul’s pacifier

I suckle ancestral juices from its breast

Those juices nourish me and help me grow

That sustenance washes away all the pain of growing up in a vat of Whiteness

Fearing my Blackness would taint the brew

Jamaica throws back the covers.

And reveals the mysteries

Of why its rhythms stir my Soul

 Why seeing reflections of me in the people all around me

Validates my existence and soothes me to my very core.

                                                                             ©  Addena Sumter-Freitag

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The Tiki Sunrise Cruise

Gliding through darkness

Ripples and Shadows

below

above

and all around as we move.

We are witnessing Dawn breaking

Infrared spectrum slivers of Electric-Orange light

flash on the horizon

Then suddenly burst into a fury of fiery colours

That shift and change every few seconds as we glide towards The Sun.

We are cruising in the tiny Tiki

Silently cruising

Down the river …

So silently we don’t even disturb the white river birds

that cover the trees that line the shore.

Occasionally a few ripples dance and splash up

Like the murmurs of Awe that bubble up from my Soul

And escape through my lips in sighs of wonderment

Sighs of reverence

At the sheer beauty of this experience.

This beauty would be God’s abstract Artwork I think

 A Masterpiece! 

And I laugh

Realizing the utter impossibility of my being able to capture this magic on film.

I laugh at the injustice the camera does to this miraculous sight

Even though my intentions are sincerely honourable.

Every second of the Sun’s rising is different

Like viewing the inside of a twisting Kaleidoscope

Like watching sequential frames on a rolling Silent Film reel

Or watching a deck of cards being fanned, flipped, and shuffled

I am mesmerized.

Ahhhhhh..

The sky is on fire!

                                         ©  Addena Sumter-Freitag

Can you see some of the reasons we Love Jamaica? 

We have been going there every year for 31 years now and have made many friends all over the Island.  Some of the friends we made are like Family (only we chose them 😊)

Our love for Jamaica started one with our 2 weeks vacations, and then 3 week vacations, then 6 weeks. Now that we are no longer working (in traditional jobs) we go for 2 or 3 months.  We don’t stay at big fancy hotels, in Jamaica, we stay at locally owned Airbnb’s or small Jamaican owned properties.

Many things have changed over the last 30 some years.  When we first started going there were mainly small hotels and properties in Negril.  There was even camping spots available for tourists on the beach.  Everyone seemed to have the One Love attitude, and that vibe was prevalent everywhere.

I called it, My Paradise.  It was easy and natural to keep that vibe around you, however, in recent years there have been some Ex Pats , and some returning tourists, bringing Grade School drama and High School type antics with them, and trying to get others to join in.  I make it a point to avoid drama (except on stage) so I do.  I have learned that with everything you have that is precious, you have to be determined to protect to preserve it. 

It is with that attitude I wrote this last poem. 

You Can’t Ruin Paradise for me

You can’t make me eat that Apple!

I’m not falling for that trick

If I did,

I’d quickly be transported to Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost ‘

And I may be the one to be expelled.

You can’t ruin Paradise for me

With its latent Hippie Vibes

The only worries and things to ponder each day used to be:

Which great music show we should catch,

Who cooked the most delish food to naam,

What people we should meet up with,

And who stocked the coldest beer.

We didn’t have worry about

The cast from Mean Girls 2:

An Ex Pat (or a local)

With a figurative Shiv in her hand

And your back in her sight.

Heaven help me …

I’m not fallin’ for that

I am not biting that Apple!

                                               ©  Addena Sumter-Freitag

I leave you all with a glimpse of Jamaica Sunrise from the Tiki Boat.

I hope you all enjoyed this issue.

See you Soon.

One Love. ♥️