Sandi L Boucher reflects on self-determination through a masking tape box used in a live event setup, exploring the metaphor of choosing who belongs in your inner circle and what that reveals about your values.
Chapters
Foreign Hi, everybody. Mishko Paganan Kwei Nidishnikas Mangdo Dam. I'm Sandy Boucher, Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan. I'm a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Northern Ontario. And I'm here today with this week's teaching on a Tuesday. Now, this week's teaching comes thanks to masking tape. If you can believe it or not, I've always had masking tape in my house, probably because my parents always had it in their house. Well, this last week. Oh, here comes my friend Oreo to join me. This week I actually did a live event for a very small group. It was very safe, very respectful. The chairs were positioned six feet apart. Everyone was safe wearing their masks unless they were seated. But for me, because I was the facilitator and going to be moving around, it was decided that a six by six box would be laid out on the floor using masking tape. So I'd be free to move around and do my hand gestures and be animated as always, without putting anyone at risk or without being at risk myself. I couldn't help thinking that that box, that imaginary masking tape outline box, was a really good metaphor and a really good process or way to decide what your life's going to look like to determine your future. I'm all about self determination, so it totally made sense to me what I mean by that. Imagine for a second if you stood up, you're suddenly in a box. And it's not a scary box, like let's make it 10 by 10, the size of a small room. So you're in this box and you're comfy, you're good, you're not feeling claustrophobic. A chair appears so you're comfortable. But at this point in time, you get to decide who gets inside. You can bring your kids inside, you can bring your partner in if you want to, you can bring in your friends if you want to. And if someone gets upset because they weren't asked, well, you're not going to hear about it. You're not even going to know because they're not inside the box. They can get upset somewhere else. That's exactly what I've done with my life, my inner circle. The people that are in my box are high quality, supportive, authentic people. They don't lie, they don't talk behind my back and they support me, authentically genuine in a genuine way, not just blowing smoke up my butt. So today I invite you, who's in your box? Would you change it and Maybe it's time you did. Until next week. I love you. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
