Walk for Reconciliation

Beautiful Sunday, Beautiful People, and Beautiful Walk  

              “How very good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity”      (Psalm 133:1).    

“Mom, I am so scared. It is awful, it should never happen again,” my eight years old son said after hearing an indigenous woman’s story of Indian residential school. It is not just a story in history book. It is not just her story. It is our story. That is why those beautiful people were walking together on such a beautiful Sunday morning. “Respect, cooperation, freedom, spirit, strength, support, happy, inspire, belong, faith, pride, future, trust, positivity, be yourself, build, smile, toy, heal, life, Canada, courage, community, same, live, love, beauty, empathy, peace, unity, safe, wish, sorry, joy, dream, bright, remember, and hope.” These are the words written and painted on the small pebbles that I have seen at the Reconciliation Expo at Strathcona Park on the Sunday afternoon. These are also the words that I have seen on the faces of the people in the streets who were walking alongside one another on the Sunday morning. The words on the pebbles at the park and the faces in the street show us that we can make the world and our society different. Reconciliation Walk is not just a walk that happened on a certain Sunday morning or an event that will remain only in someone’s memory. The Walk is a journey for us to keep walking together through our lives, and also a process to keep working together. It needs us to add up our voices and steps continuously to the journey.

"We are all one." It is not just a catchword for a Sunday morning walk. I believe, it is about who we are and what we should be. If here this place cannot be a home to someone, this place never be a home to all. If one cannot be all, we cannot be all. We are all one, and here this place is home for all.