A Door To Everything Society

Seek Help, Receive Love, Heal Within

By

Volunteering as a Reader
at WISH Foundation
in Vancouver’s DTES

 

Three times now in the last few months, I’ve been to WISH Foundation on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9:30 to do readings, but mostly to listen to the women speak of their struggles with addiction, their pain and issues. We laugh, we cry, we process together.

Some of the staff at the Foundation have been curious and wanted readings, too. What amazing stories of resilience, from the street to giving back, working to help with the change.

All these women are incredible. It is an honour to be invited. My next visit will be September 14th.

****

Almost two years ago, October 2020, WISH created  a shelter. Here is a post in the Vancouver Sun and below is info from their website, October 2021, a year after it was created.

[Read more…]

By

Working as a Reader
with Women in Recovery

 

I have been volunteering since 2016 at John Volken Academy in Surrey, a therapeutic community for young people in recovery from many different kinds of addiction.

At first, I taught sewing and crafts, then I began taking the women on outings to visit therapeutic horses and outdoor theatre.

As we got to know each other, they were curious how I made a living, wanting to know about the information I share in readings.

Lately, when I visit the women on Monday evenings, we pull cards.

We sit in a circle around their large dining room table, and they  pull 3 cards from each of the decks I use — I work with 2 Tarot decks and my own, Cards of Balance.

Then we discuss what is going on in their lives, with aid of the cards.

There are often fun gasps of amazement as the cards mirror what is happening for them, encouraging them along on their incredibly courageous paths.

Being with these women is a highlight of my week.

I feel so blessed to be included on their journeys
as they change into Who They Truly Are.

 

By

A New Film by Aaron Gunn:
“Canada is Dying” with the Hope
of Therapeutic Community

 

As we let go of the old belief systems, that chaos within, our lack of self-love and self-worth, it is very apparent in our external environment, but also the hope a our new world.

Below is a film outlining issues in Canada from availability of “harm reduction” drugs called “safe supply” (nothing safe about them), to not enough treatment centres – therapeutic communities, to our law system allowing repeat offenders out on bail, to our prisons and recovery centres being revolving doors instead of a place to deeply mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually heal and learn skills to navigate living in society.

This film illustrates how important it is to keep doing our inner balancing work so our outer reality reflects back to us as Love and worth, our Ascension, evolved society.

As Within So Without

Several years ago after volunteering at a therapeutic community weekly here, just outside of Vancouver, in Surrey (an hours’ drive from where I live) – John Volken Academy – I envisioned one for women, and for women with children, with added ideas, and put it on paper.

At the end of this film it shows how Alberta is building 10 therapeutic communities for people struggling with addiction, called the Alberta Model — a dream come true!

Thank you everyone involved! This is so much more!

[Read more…]

By

YWCA Campaign Sheds Light
on ‘Invisible’ Crisis
of Concussions & Domestic Violence

 

When we think of concussions, we think of sports. Over the past decade, athletes and advocates have helped us understand the seriousness of concussions, leading to more research, new safety protocols and standards for sports-related concussion treatment.

A new campaign launched by the YWCA Metro Vancouver, in partnership with former NHL player Trevor Linden, says it estimates that for every NHL concussion, thousands of women in Canada suffer the same injury because of intimate partner violence.

A photo of a woman holding her head in her hands.

(Photo Illustration/CBC News)

By Mouhamad Rachini, CBC Radio,

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/concussions-intimate-partner-violence-1.6849664

It’s been five years since Rachel was violently abused and concussed by her ex-husband, but she still feels the effects of his assault today.

“The first 12 weeks were the worst, and then I had a relapse about six months later,” said Rachel, whose real name CBC is protecting for privacy and safety reasons.

“But at this point, I have some issues that are post-concussive syndrome that … don’t show any signs of improving,” she told The Current guest host Mark Kelley.

She says she has accommodations at work to help her through her day-to-day, special glasses to deal with light sensitivity, and was even able to see a neurologist to help her through recovery.

But while she’s grateful for the support, she wonders if earlier intervention would’ve helped her deal with her concussion better.

[Read more…]

By

How Frighteningly Strong Meth
Has Supercharged Homelessness

Skid Row in Los Angeles. Photo: David Swanson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

By Benjamin Hart, Intelligencer, December 6th, 2022

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/sam-quinones-on-meth-fentanyl-and-homelessness.html

Sam Quinones has covered gangs, crime, and the border for 35 years, including a ten-year stint at the L.A. Times.

He established himself as a leading voice on the opioid epidemic with the 2015 book Dreamland, which told the story of how prescription-drug companies and a sophisticated black-tar heroin operation in Mexico wreaked havoc across the U.S.

In his follow-up, 2021’s The Least of Us, Quinones focused on the rise of two synthetic drugs: fentanyl, which had become ascendant in the intervening years, and a frighteningly potent form of meth that can quickly inflict tremendous damage on users.

The extreme effects of these drugs, Quinones believes, has worsened the homelessness crisis in America.

I spoke with Quinones about the ravages of meth and fentanyl, how they have exacerbated social problems around the country, and what local and federal governments can do to stem the problem.

In your book, The Least of Us, and in an Atlantic piece last year, you wrote about the rise of very pure meth, which is produced in a different way than the variety that used to flow into the U.S.

The effects have been devastating, but this still seems like a fairly under-the-radar phenomenon. Has it gotten more attention since you wrote about it?


My book highlighted this problem that people were seeing all across the country, and now people are trying to understand why it’s happening. And I think more and more people are coming to the conclusion that the meth coming from Mexico is being produced with much more potency. [Read more…]