Taking a break this holiday season

The good news is 2024 is almost over, and whether it was a pretty good one or a pretty rough one – or somewhere in between – 2025 is definitely exciting to think about, plan, and, most importantly, get done!

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this season reminds us of the importance of our families and our health.

We lost many people this year, including first-language speakers who took their stories and rich Kanien’kéha talent with them, and they must be remembered. They built who we are today.

Our elders are walking books of such amazing and vital information, and sitting down to talk to them is a privilege in any language, but to do it in our own language is something special.

We also welcomed many little ones into the fray, full of hope, promise, and a bright future.

We must nurture them and try our best to give them a better life than we had growing up.

We always like to take this time to remind people to check on our elders and those in need, especially when the temperatures drop. Some people may have no one to turn to for help, and many just won’t ask.

It’s up to us to keep our eyes and ears open for the ones who need help most. If we’re the ones in need, it’s up to us to seek help. We must heal ourselves to help others heal.

Hurt people hurt people, as the saying goes; well, the opposite energy is what we need to work on to get us back on track as a proud nation.

It’s all part of making a better community for everyone, including the ones who sacrifice so much yet ask for so little.

If you had a rough year, now is a time to reflect, ball it into a piece of paper and throw it in the fire. Next year is a new beginning and it’s going to be awesome!

Need to lose weight? Want to go back to school? Looking to get a better car, a higher paying job or your first house?

All those things are attainable if you work hard enough, but it’s also important to pace yourself to achieve lofty life goals.

For us at The Eastern Door, we want to listen more intently, to what’s going on, to the people who come to us for help, to everything around us. We already do it every day as reporters, but we’re always striving to do more, and keeping our doors open for anyone to be heard is our job.

We want to fight harder for our community even though we already sacrifice so much in that regard; with the long hours, so much time lost with our families, and personal time eaten up by the job.

We’re always fighting for our language, and will never stop. If you haven’t “liked,” shared or donated to Sharing Our Stories (www.sharing-our-stories.com) yet, now’s a good time – it’s a project for everyone and will ensure our history is recorded for future generations, along with our beautiful Kanien’kéha language for all to read, hear and learn.

Resolutions made for the new year are often broken mere days into it, but if you take every day as a new one, attempt to correct your mistakes and always try to be better, one day you will be.

Work on yourself and give yourself breaks as needed. It’s a marathon, this life we live, not a race, and we don’t know where the finish line is.

We want to say niawenhkó:wa sewakwé:kon, to those who helped us this year, but also in years past. The Eastern Door turns 33 next month and January will also mark the same amount of time owning the paper (16-and-a-half years) for editor/publisher Steve Bonspiel as founder Kenneth Deer. That’s a lot of stories.

And a lot of lost sleep.

We appreciate you talking to us, trusting us, supporting us, and encouraging us, from the person wearing an Eastern Door shirt to the ones who participate in our hockey raffles, to our advertisers, readers, and overall general supporters:

You’re the best, and we honour you every day!

Here’s to a new beginning and a brighter future!

Steve Bonspiel

The Eastern Door