in the realm of hungry ghosts

"For many of Vancouver's chronic, hard-core addicts, it's as if invisible barbed-wire barrier surrounds the area extending a few blocks from Main and Hastings in all directions. There is a world beyond, but to them, it's largely inaccessible. It fears and rejects them and they, in turn, do not understand the rules and cannot survive in it" - Dr. Gabor Mate

when I read this passage from in the realm of hungry ghosts, I had to stop, think, and eventually write it down to retain. It captures the catch-22 in the lives of Vancouver hard-core addicts so well...and made me ask myself many questions about the way things are.

how are addicts supposed to heal when at nearly every turn, they are shunned by the rest of the city?
nothing captures the distance between us and them more than the avoiding glance.
when an addict is talking to themselves,
or in a trance,
or asking us for spare change...

we avoid the look of sadness in their eyes
we look away
in fear that if we do look them straight in the eye
that we would perhaps see ourselves there
in fear that if we acknowledge their presence
that it would make us culpable, responsible

on august 16th, I wrote:
"I'm struck by my incredible blessedness as I read dr.mate's book. in reading about the deeply-rooted pain that addicts experience (and how much it has to do with traumatic experiences/abuse in childhood and youth), I am reminded that I must use my physical-emotional-intellectual strength to my best. I should not take lightly the fact that I am healthy...I must use the health I have to be a vessel of healing for others.