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"normal" is just common and on a continuum




What I liked about Buddhism when I found it was all the mind training and the easy step-by-step already discovered and verified ways to get yourself out of anything. I also really appreciated the take-it-or-leave-it-ness of the teachings; it matched what my own elders had been trying to remind me: if it works for you, excellent. if it doesn't, just ignore that part and move on. Each path is unique and perfect as it is for each person.




I needed Buddhism because my own Nipissingism had been carved up and tossed about/away by the impacts of colonialism (which is a nice way to say white supremacist ideologies that were governmentally approved worked to inflict a multi-fold, many generations genocide on my peoples, which is incidentally still occurring in its latest iteration). There wasn't much Nipissingism spirituality teachings for me to find and work with as a young kid. The entirety of First Nations' spirituality felt like it was in the beginning stages of just re-beginningness, after decades of destruction. So there wasn't much to find easily.




So when a very immense, black as night Thunderbird decided I needed 1:1 instructions in some of what Thunderbird knows, my Nipissingism helped me hold myself together cellularly, and Buddhism helped me stabilize my mind. It took about four years: one year for the various instructions, and another few years to normalize and reintegrate myself into my life (because honestly, how do you live after a bird the size of a skyscraper decides to open your mind at random points during the year and provide you with information that is too large to hold).




With the help of my elders (all "conveniently" dead at this point) and Buddhism I was able to convince myself I wasn't crazy, that this was a culturally-normal experience, and I was handling it well (I was, after all, parenting a 4-8 year old in a new city by myself, and I had managed to find consistent employment and bills were getting paid). Still, what I would have cherished was being able to approach this experience from a solely Nipissingism way, something I hope the younger generations get to do in the years to come. I hope for myself that I get to keep rediscovering Nipissingism, that the Thunderbird returns to shake me up again, and that my elders (all still "conveniently" dead) continue to stick around and give pointers. What I hope for you is that you come to understand, if you don't yet already, how unique and perfect your path is, and you can accept or leave anything easily, without needing to invest in the story of what that might mean. It means nothing or everything; it's up to you. And that's really okay.

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