IT STOPS WITH ME: MEMOIR OF A CANUCK GIRL

IT STOPS WITH ME: MEMOIR OF A CANUCK GIRL, originally uploaded by artist_charleentouchette.

Publishing my memoir estranged me from family and friends who abandoned me as well as those in my community who were not ready to face the reality of pervasive domestic violence.
It took nearly thirteen years to decide to tell my story and publish it. Although I paid a great emotional cost for telling, I did it for all the people who have been healed by reading my memoir. Family members and French Canadians have written to thank me for telling their story. Franco American literature scholars from the Sorbonne, Université de Rouên and the University of Florida write and deliver papers and Ph.D. dissertations focusing on IT STOPS WITH ME beside Jack Kerouac. Indian readers from reservations have thanked me for the art and writing that also describe their experiences. I’ve made new family across the country with people who also want to heal our families and vow to make it stop with them.
There is a direct connection between the abuse of women, children and the family and the abuse and destruction of the earth and indigenous people. Once we tell our stories and take responsibility for our healing, we become powerful beyond measure. We also become dangerous to those who profit off of violence and fear. Thus, they will do anything to silence and stop us. That just makes me more determined.
It is unacceptable that women and children today still suffer worldwide from war, oppression and violence. Each day the call to peace is more urgent. Mothers everywhere want peace with justice.
Today, we are in a dark time of war and violence, when we are called upon to bring light and love into this world. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
My grandmother Mimi embodied mother love. Despite adversity, Mimi loved unconditionally and laughed whole-heatedly. Now that I am becoming an elder and officially a crone, I understand the source of my grandmother’s joy. I can see why despite her hard life and the difficult times she witnessed including two World Wars; she still embodied joi de vivre, and shared it.
As a woman and a mother, I see it is time for action. We are not powerless. It doesn't start with them and it isn't their fault. It starts with me and you.
We need to restore the power and respect for the matriarchy that served humankind for tens of thousands of years before the establishment of patriarchy just a few thousand years ago that has led our earth to the edge of destruction. Cultures and religions in which women and children are oppressed and denigrated are the most violent and the most destructive of the environment worldwide.
As a mother, I know first-hand how every action affects the earth and my children’s and grandchildren’s future. As Winona LaDuke wrote, “We are mothers of our nations, and anything that concerns our nations is of concern to us as women. Those choices and necessities move us to speak out and to be active.”
I am a mother of four young people ages 17 to 27. I don’t have the luxury of blaming others, I must act to create a world where their creativity can flourish and they and their children beyond the seventh generation can breathe clean air, drink fresh water, eat healthy food and live in peace with justice.
The time is now. There is no path, no blueprint, no road map to peace. The path is peace.
Act to support and nurture irrepressible, unstoppable creativity. Writing and Art do matter. They can change lives and inspire the world.
People talk about "us" and "them." But we are doing this to the earth and other human beings. It is our habits and greed that deplete the earth’s resources, enable inhumane working conditions, destroy the environment and cause catastrophic climate change.

Our money pays for the destruction; and we can stop it. Us and Them is an Illusion - we are them and they are us. They won’t make polluting products if we don’t buy them. We can vote with our voices, and with our actions.
Earth Changes today tell us we all need to be ndns again. Everybody is indigenous to this planet earth. We need to stop taking more than we need and adopt indigenous values of respect, sharing, and family.
All my relations.
Charleen Touchette
TouchArt.net
www.OneEarthBlog/blogspot.com