I Have Always Belonged. So have you.

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People sometimes ask me about healing, spirituality, self-compassion, and recovery. They ask about homelessness, addiction, trauma, and all the labels we place on ourselves and others.

I have lived many lives.

I have been homeless.

I have struggled with addiction.

I have been abused, and I have caused harm.

I have known shame, grief, fear, and loneliness.

I have been a father, a husband, a farrier, a community leader, an injured worker, and a survivor.

I have worn many labels throughout my life.

But my elders taught me something much simpler.

They taught me that I am simply human.

Being human is spiritual.

Not something to achieve.

Not something to earn.

Not something reserved for saints or holy people.

Just being human.

I have always belonged to the Earth.

Even when I was homeless, I was never without a home. I was still upon the Earth. I was still part of life. I was still breathing, laughing, crying, hurting, and living.

The Earth did not reject me.

Life did not reject me.

The Creator did not reject me.

I belonged then, and I belong now.

That teaching changed how I understand myself.

I no longer see my life through labels.

Not addict.

Not criminal.

Not victim.

Not success story.

Not community leader.

Not broken.

Not healed.

Not enlightened.

Just human.

My life is simply my story.

No one ever arrives.

There is no final destination where we become perfect, healed, or somehow more worthy.

There is only life.

There is only relationship.

There is only the responsibility to be honest, to make amends where we can, to keep learning, and to walk in a good way.

Restorative justice is not only about community.

It is also about restoring relationship with ourselves.

Not through punishment.

Not through shame.

Not through pretending we have no darkness.

But through remembering that we never stopped belonging.

I own my past.

I own my darkness and my light.

I have been both wounded and wounded others.

I carry regrets, lessons, joys, and scars.

Nothing can be used against me because I no longer hide from myself.

I am simply human.

And perhaps that is all there ever was.

I have always belonged.

And so have you.

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