Experience, time will help put fears to rest

By Letter to the Editor on January 29, 2019.

In response to the outcry with the location of our supervised consumption site here in Medicine Hat, there is nothing any one can hope to say when a heart is full of fear. The best we, as a compassionate society can do, is listen. We can say the fears are unfounded. We can say concerns about financial futures and safety are unnecessary. Alas, experience and time are the two measures to help put fears to rest.

My own story of fear involves the possibility of losing a child. My fear made me irrational and at times, very angry at an outcome I did not know how to control. On July 1, 2016, my fear became my reality when a police officer knocked on my door and told me my son had died of an overdose. I was unsure, then, of my own survival. How does one live with such loss? You just do. You make choices. You can choose to become bitter or better. You can choose to add goodness and kindness and empathy to your community. You can choose to live a new life of gratitude, of awareness and of different priorities once you have dealt with your ultimate fear.

The choice belongs to each of us.

Written with love …

Kym Porter

Medicine Hat

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