When Remembrance Day Comes Around

My dad North Nova Highlander 1941 Springhill Nova Scotia

When Remembrance Day comes round every year I always feel conflicted. I think about my father and his family who escaped Germany during WW11. My father changed his family name in hopes that people would not call him a German Jew.

Though I am not what I would call a pacifist, I hate war, and all it entails, because of it's negative affects on soldiers, their families and civilians alike.

After reading Chris Hedges book War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, I have an even deeper negative feeling about war. On  Remembrance Day I can't help acknowledge my sadness and my conflicted feelings. So I am re-posting a blog post for a second time called Home Town Battlefield

This song written and performed by J.P. Cormier brings this message of the toll that war and other traumatic experiences, takes on individuals. I recently heard J.P talk about how when he wrote this song, he then had to face and come to terms with his own PTSD, not so much from war, but from his life. I was happy to hear him talk about this openly, and candidly.

If we can't seem to end war in the world, it does give me hope to know that there are individuals being candid and honest about how PTSD has affected them, to break down the walls of stigma that surrounds mental illness, whether it be through war, or other traumatic events in life.

Wounded Warriors - Can Praxis

Animals have always greatly contributed to my happiness. As a kid I always had a dog, cat, hamster, guinea pig, bird, we even had a pig once. Each one provided me with hours of companionship, unconditional love, and I think above all, they all gave me a profound comfort when I was sad, brokenhearted, and lonely. They always seemed to understand me, and helped me to understand myself. They continue to do so, to this day. I'd be lost without my animals.

Growing up, I lived vicariously through my friends, or others who had horses, because I was so drawn to them for as long as I can remember, for a myriad of reasons. We could never afford a horse, and though my father always promised we would some day have a horse, I knew this was an empty promise in spite of my father's good intentions.

As a Youth Care Worker, I directly got the opportunity to see how healing horses could be, after I had the privilege of fulfilling a life long dream to be around horses on a daily basis, in every capacity, for over a period of two years. These youth became increasingly confident, happy, trusting, and less fearful.

Kobe and Skyler

Creativity, animals and kids go hand in hand I believe.
Horses in particular are so able to acutely attune themselves to human beings, and have so much to teach us.

Recently there has been so much in the media about PTSD, especially in regards to our War Veterans. I learned about a powerful program that provides therapy for Vets and their families, through horse therapy called Can Praxis. This program gives very tangible hope. God only knows, we live in a world that is in desperate need of hope.

If you, or someone you know could benefit from such a program contact:

WOUNDED WARRIORS CANADA

MAIL:

310 Byron Street South, Suite 4
Whitby, Ontario
L1N 4P8
EMAIL:
For General Inquiries: info@woundedwarriors.ca
For Media Requests: scott@woundedwarriors.ca / 289-388-6181

PHONE: 

1-888-706-4808

Fax:

 1-905-430-9419