Peace + Justice

Mindfulness helps cultivate peace within yourself and others. Everyone experiences strong feelings, emotions, stress and uncertainty. That's why we need strategies to pause, self-regulate and become more aware within ourselves. Noticing what is happening inside of us is called mindfulness. Checkout this video for more guidance!

⏸️ Pause
🫁 Breath
🔍 Notice
🎬 Act

Practice intentionally throughout the day. The more stressed you feel, the more you need to PBNA! Keep in mind that sometimes 'Act' is inaction or stopping, changing, resting.

New to the PBNA strategy?  This strategy is great for all ages, start with Pause/Breath and expand. Set the duration for your needs (e.g. 20 second to 20 min).

On my website you can download for free  an emotion identification & regulation lesson plan and digital slides (for children/youth), as well as a printable anchor chart (for all ages).

You are all invited to this webinar about war in Sudan! 🙂

The aim of this webinar is to raise awareness and educate the public about the scale and severity of the war in Sudan. By offering an in-depth look at the causes, impacts and dynamics of the Sudanese conflict, we hope that a better understanding of this situation will encourage more concerted and effective global action at all levels, from individuals to national governments and global organizations.

01. How Memory Of Overland Silk Rd Inspire 21st Cntry Resurrectn- West to Mdle East -Peace, Justice & Prosperity for All (B2J) ! 02. Memory of Historic Silk Road Twin-Hub-6th Cntry BC-1st Cntry AD at Hub 01. Bactra to Jerusalem (B2J) _No-Path of Anguish by War+Poverty 2025+ ?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/L6RHHKJi7wNhzCEv8

We have launched an online repository with 50+ conscious leadership resources for trainers/coaches/change-agents. It is free and available to all. Feel free to share with others!

https://consciousleadershiptree.com/

Our Peace & Justice healing session on Relational Grounding: Hearing Each Other's Stories on Wed., July 3rd built upon our listening theme from our June session with weaver @Orly Israel. Orly has created The Listening Table, a movement that invites us to set up listening tables in community spaces with the agreements: No judgment. No advice. No charge.

For our July session, co-facilitator Elaheh Pooyandeh led us in an exercise of deep listening that leads to what she calls a Shared Pool of Meaning.  Elaheh invited participants to be storytellers, responding to one of the following two prompts:

• How have you been healed by having someone listen to you?
• What you might be able to heal by listening?

We then moved into breakout groups of three people. For the first five minutes, the storyteller responded to one of the prompts. The 1st listener then shared what they heard from the storyteller in three minutes, while the 2nd listener described in three minutes what they heard from the first two speakers.  In the remaining ten minutes, the three talked about what surfaced for them in their listening.

Following the breakouts, every participant had an opportunity to share what this experience of deeper listening was like for them. Comments included:

• This brought back a lot of memories.
• It was a very valuable experience and expanded my identity to include parts of me from my 20s and 30s.
• This was very powerful. I got more out of this than I thought I would.
• Enjoyed this experience. It brought me to a place of gratitude, reminding me why I'm doing what I am.
• We all gained something, whether telling or listening.
• You feel very listened to and realize you can step back from the story you're telling and find your way into another person's story.
• A wonderful exercise that maps to one of our goals which is to seek peace within.
• I have been a lifelong listener, but haven't always listened to myself. It's important to share your story.

One person pointed out that each person in her group was from another country, which had its own value.

Another member advised us of the  organization The Human Library that began in Denmark and invites us to conversations of deep listening as we challenge stigma and stereotypes by approaching one another as "open books."

In our next session, Peace & Justice Open Mic: What's Calling to You? on Wed., Aug. 7th (11:00am to 12:30pm Central; 9-10:30am Pacific; 12:00-1:30pm Eastern), participants will have the virtual "floor" to talk about what's emerging for you in your work for peace and justice.

Mark Your Calendars! For Gandhi's birthday, on Oct. 2nd, we will join again with the Euphrates Institute to hear from international peace educator Paul K. Chappell, beginning at 10:00am Central. More to come!

Yours in peace and weaving,

@Kate Towle, Co-Facilitator

Let's see how many ideas we can generate and share ...

How can (do) we promote peace and justice in our virtual and/or local communities?

Who are the young peacemakers in your communities?

Peace Catalyst is accepting nominations for the 2024 Young Innovators award, celebrating peacebuilders under 30 who are experimenting and trying new ideas to transform their communities, build bridges across divides, and create just and equitable social change.

Young peacebuilders can be nominated by someone else, or they can nominate themselves, and can live anywhere in the world. Winners receive a $1000 award to use as they see fit. Winners will be announced at the Alliance for Peacebuilding's 2024 PeaceCon, September 10-12.

Nominations close June 30.

Learn more and submit nominations here: https://www.peacecatalyst.org/2024-rick-love-awards

We are seeking new co-leads for this Peace + Justice topic group! The primary role of co-leads is to plan, communicate about and facilitate gatherings.  Currently we meet the first Wednesday of the month for the gathering, but there is flexibility in the model based on your interest, availability and the needs of our community.

Please contact Julie and/or Kate to help out; share your ideas, expertise and/or hold space for others in this community.

Julie Lillie: thepeacepad.julie@gmail.com

Kate Towle: kteemuse@gmail.com

We are inviting you to our third and final online session of How We Make Peace with Kawtar and David. It will take place at 3pm EDT on Sunday April 7—six months after October 7. We hope you can join us.

REGISTER for April 7 on Zoom

Once again, Kawtar and David will plumb the depths of their own experience of this war. Then they will hold each other through it.

We’re also pleased to announce, as promised, our first in-person event. It will take place in New York City at NeueHouse on April 9 at 6pm. At our last gathering we set the intention to do a live event in New York City. We remain committed to the purpose of making visible and accessible a narrative of healing as the path to peace. We are extremely grateful for your support and donations, which has made this possible.

It’s free. You just have to to register below and please share with those in your network who you think would be allies of this work:

REGISTER for April 9 at NeueHouse in New York City

Dear Peacebuilders,

Our session to reflect together on bringing our most noble self to peacebuilding slowed us down to reflect with one another on deep questions that inform our practice.

Elehah centered us with a breathing exercise that asked us to imagine the efforts of peacebuilding through our senses. Where does peace sit within our bodies? How does the idea of peace and justice engage our sense of touch? What does it taste, smell or sound like? How does it look?

In 1:1 dialogue, we explored this, as well as what is working in our practices and where we are feeling stretched. Spiritual guide and facilitator Tom Kotlarek, who came to us from the Euphrates Institute, led us through a series of reflections and questions.

Our co-facilitator Elaheh Pooyandeh is from Iran, and Tom had us hold in our hearts the airstrike that struck the Iranian embassy in Syria, killing two generals and five guard members. He also asked us to think about the divisions we experience in our own countries and how we find peace amidst them. He asked, "What do we need to do to get at peace with what is happening?" He had us scan our bodies again to understand how we're doing and how we want to feel as we approach challenging situations. Our goal, as he described, is to have our own sense of calm act as a benchmark so that we can bring light, kindness and constructive action to difficult situations.

@Barry Koren invited us to think about the type of energy we are exchanging with people and if it is giving us the results we're seeking.

Elaheh closed our session with a slide from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that had us look closely at the "Circles of Influence" in our lives and the "Circles of Concern." The more we focus on our "concerns," the more we shrink our good energy that builds what we can influence. Elaheh invited us to put our focus on what we can do to create peace in our world.

We're excited for our May Day Peace & Justice Open Mic Session on Wed., May 1st (11:00 am to 12:30pm Central; 12:00pm to 1:30pm Eastern; 9-10:30am Pacific). This will be a free-flowing session for you to discuss peace issues weighing on your mind.

I look forward to seeing you again on May 1st!

@Kate Towle

Hi all 🙂

Long time, no talk. I was in the field, building Peace!

Today, I would like to inform you of two upcoming actions within our campaign in order to close military bases in Djibouti :

1 - April 10: a webinar to explain in more detail why the Djibouti bases should be closed.

During this webinar, you can also become a "messenger of peace" by signing up to drop off petitions and thousands of signatures at an embassy near you.

2 - May 29 & 30: first "delivery" of signatures to the embassies of the 8 countries with a base in Djibouti.

This is a GLOBAL action! We'll be delivering the signed petitions to the embassies of these 8 countries EVERYWHERE in the world, (almost) at the same time.

We already have peace ‘’messengers’’ in Africa, Canada and Japan. Become a messenger for your country or city. Simply reply to this message and tell us this is what you'd like to do.

Link to register for the webinar and to follow the progress of the campaign:

https://actionnetwork.org/even...close-bases-djibouti

Link to the petition to be shared widely :

https://worldbeyondwar.org/fr/djibouti/

Link to the Peace Messengers Map :

https://www.google.com/maps/d/...476699999996&z=4

Thank you for your support!

Marion Transetti

Chapter co-coordinator

Senegal for a World BEYOND War

What a powerful gathering today in partnership with Euphrates Institute! Thank you to everyone who joined to listen, share, process and harvest.

Here are the resources that were shared:

1. Regulate (relate, reason): PBNA Strategy
2. Feelings/ Emotions list
3. "Too much on our plate gives us indigestion. But sometimes the way we handle our overcrowded schedules is like trying to cure indigestion by eating even more. .. In written Chinese the characters for "busy" are "heart" plus"killing." Besides the physical diseases stress is known to cause strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, and ulcers, among others- it also closes our heart spiritually and emotionally." ~ From Baraz, James, and Shoshana Alexander. Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness. Bantam Books, 2010
4. Setting Boundaries & Center for Nonviolent Communication:
   • Messages within Anger (regulate)
   • I Feel...
   • Because I need/value...
   • Would you be willing to...
   • Are you feeling... because you need...?

5. Discussions: Where is your struggle/challenge with nonviolent communication, boundary setting and voices/advocating for your needs?  How can you develop that?

   Set an intention: What do you want to set free?

6. "To assume the best about people is an inherently selfish act, because the life you change first is your own. Nothing is sustainable without boundaries. "   ~Dr. Brene Brown (video)

We are seeking new co-leads for Peace + Justice!

Consider joining Euphrates Global Connection calls (first Wednesday of the month ), sign up for their newsletter for more information.

Thanksgiving is a time when families connect and often feel more disconnected… because of the different perspectives that we can’t seem to bridge. The CoMetta gathering tomorrow offers us a chance to focus on gratitude and offers a practice for dialogue that can help us connect, listen, and understand more deeply. Join us and you might just bring your family closer this Thanksgiving!

A CoMetta Gathering for Gratitude

What is the role of gratitude in helping us face hardship? What is the role of community in dealing with isolation? What is the role of listening in a time of separation? At the next CoMetta convening, we’ll explore these themes not by way of theory but in practice. Join us as we use the practice of Conscious Dialogue developed by the Leadership Forum Community, the oldest in the US, to practice gratitude in this season of Thanksgiving.  Leadership coach, Sue Rose, will facilitate our session. All are welcome!  

November 21, 2023

Tuesday, 7 - 8:30 PM EST

Zoom

Register at: eventbrite.com/e/gratitude-a-cometta-convening-tickets-757385208547

One of the intentions of the Peace + Justice network is to share knowledge and helpful resources. The Leadership Forum Community (the oldest living leadership network in the US) is building a collaborative and shared repository of Conscious Leadership tools, practices, and resources. This session will offer an opportunity for us to offer a practice that we use that has an impact and to glean useful resources from others. Feel free to invite others from your networks to the session.

Wednesday, December 6⋅12:00 – 1:30pm ET

Zoom Joining information: https://aspeninstitute.zoom.us/j/97692712528

Meeting ID: 976 9271 2528

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One tap mobile

+13017158592,,97692712528# US (Washington DC)

+16468769923,,97692712528# US (New York)

From David Brooks in the NYT on seeing people and dialogue...

We sometimes think that really great people perform the sorts of epic acts of altruism that might earn them Nobel Peace Prizes. But the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch argued that the essential moral skill is being considerate to others in the complex circumstances of everyday life. Morality is about how we interact with each other minute by minute.

...People want to connect. Above almost any other need, human beings long to have another person look into their faces with love and acceptance. The issue is that we lack practical knowledge about how to give one another the attention we crave. Some days it seems like we have intentionally built a society that gives people little guidance on how to perform the most important activities of life.

The art of conversation.
If you want to know how the people around you see the world, you have to ask them. Here are a few tips I’ve collected from experts on how to become a better conversationalist:

Be a loud listener. When another person is talking, you want to be listening so actively you’re burning calories. I have a friend named Andy Crouch who listens as if he were a congregant in a charismatic church. He’s continually responding to my comments with encouraging affirmations, with “amen”s, “aha”s and “yes!”es. I love talking to that guy.

Storify whenever possible. I no longer ask people: What do you think about that? Instead, I ask: How did you come to believe that? That gets them talking about the people and experiences that shaped their values. People are much more revealing and personal when they are telling stories. And the conversation is going to be warmer and more fun.

Do the looping, especially with adolescents. People are not as clear as they think they are, and we’re not as good at listening as we think we are. If you tell me something important and then I paraphrase it back to you, what psychologists call “looping,” we can correct any misimpressions that may exist between us.

Turn your partner into a narrator. People don’t go into enough detail when they tell you a story. If you ask specific follow-up questions — Was your boss screaming or irritated when she said that to you? What was her tone of voice? — then they will revisit the moment in a more concrete way and tell a richer story.

Don’t be a topper. If somebody tells you he is having trouble with his teenager, don’t turn around and say, “I know exactly what you mean. I’m having incredible problems with my own Susan.” You may think you’re trying to build a shared connection, but what you are really doing is shifting attention back to yourself.

If you're like me, you're horrified by the outbreak of large-scale conflict and widespread polarization in the world. From my work in two dozen countries and most recently in Portugal, I find a shared pattern that creates the path to peace. Here are some thoughts on what we can do to change things for real:

https://spiritualsushi.com/ins...ce-at-a-time-of-war/

Peace Through Action USA , a Weave Community member, invites weavers focused on increasing social cohesion and peace in their neighborhoods, towns, and cities, to add their initiatives and organizations as prospective AmeriCorps member service sites to Peace Through Action’s upcoming application for federal AmeriCorps national service funding.

Peace Through Action has a current federal grant to plan Peace Through Action AmeriCorps. Place-based dialogue, peaceful skills training, and peace through action planning are among the activities included in the program’s design. Peace Through Action is accepting applications from prospective service sites through Friday, December, 8, 2023. Go to the Peace Through
Action AmeriCorps service sites webpage for the online application and instructions, a presentation and FAQ about this opportunity, and a schedule of orientation calls. Peace Through Action welcomes weavers and the communities they support to join our future national
service corps for peace!

A peace-building organization I know named Courage of Care is offering facilitator training. They work internationally. I am sharing for those who may be interested.

https://courageofcare.org/relational-facilitators/

We welcome all folks with facilitation experience—including trainers, mediators, DEI professionals, community organizers, educators, NGO leaders, coaches and healers—who are both grounded in healing-centered and counter-oppressive practice and are already embedded in communities and/or organizations in which they can bring this work forward in meaningful and impactful ways. We recognize that not all facilitators are formally recognized as such, and we encourage folks doing the often invisible work of relational culture building to join us!

There are a few reduced tuition Solidarity Fellowships left for facilitators from the Global South,

Sharing this Braver Angels workshop in case some folks are interested:

DEPOLARIZING WITHIN WORKSHOP
OCTOBER 5, 2023, 10AM - 1PM EASTERN

Much of today’s polarization is driven by how we talk with like-minded people about those on the other side. Too often, we stereotype, dismiss, or ridicule our fellow citizens who support the other political party, its leaders, and its policies.

This free three-hour workshop teaches participants:

How to be more aware of their own “inner polarizer”
How to be critical without demonizing, dismissing or stereotyping large swaths of the population
Strategies for intervening constructively in social conversations with like-minded peers when these conversations veer into contempt and ridicule for people who hold other political views.
Who can come? Anyone interested in examining their own inner polarization and learning strategies to disagree without condemning or ridiculing others.

This workshop is a free event brought to you by Braver Angels as part of our mission to depolarize America. Braver Angels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. We invite you to consider a gift to Braver Angels; all donations are tax deductible. Your support will allow us to offer more workshops and debates with the ultimate goal of uniting America.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/d...tration-690999156077

In our September Peace + Justice gathering  @Kate Towle powerfully facilitated the protocol from Humans Systems Dynamics Institute: INQUIRY IS THE ANSWER.  Our wicked question: How does capitalist society unhook itself from the bottomless quest for more - in exchange for a more peaceful and just society?

Here are the other questions generated from there:

• How do we encourage people to use time as real money?
• What role does education play in ‘unhooking’ capitalism?
• What examples are there of societies who have unhooked themselves?
• How can neighborhoods become a more sustainable environment to combat crime?
• Can we make UBI work (universal basic income)?
• How do we get violent games to change or out of hands of youth, give gifts instead (guns)?
• How do we bring emotional education into the school system in the same way we teach academics?
• Are there contexts where our society is showing peace & justice in an equitable way - where is this occurring, how is it successful and how can we duplicate that?
• What practices or structures can we bring to our schools & classrooms to start our day with genuine connection, reflection on the day/end of day.

As we debriefed after, we could visualize converting these questions into a mind map.  We talked about leaning into the messiness of the process and what's generated vs framing of questions that are somewhat veiled solutions... opening up more from why, to how, to what's the reason.

Thanks for being there! @Katya Jadwick @Darlene Cain @Lyndon Rego @Andrea Pope @Roger Balson @Maria Oah @Caren Stelson @Tom Short @Elizabeth Hartford @Joyce Bonafield-Pierce and Barry Koen

The Leadership Forum (ta 105-year leadership community in the US) is hosting a gathering on conscious leadership which we believe is critical to our times.  Free to attend. You'll find kindred spirits there.

You can download the Forum's exploration of conscious leadership here.
Click here to download and read the position paper today

Peace + Justice Weavers,

We strive to co-create this group... Please take a few minutes to complete this form and provide your feedback about the future of the group and our gathering focuses.

Thank you,

Julie, Caren, Kate, Darlene and Lyndon

Peace and Justice Builders,

It was a sacred moment to spend time deepening our practice and understanding of each other at our first session on Wednesday, August 2nd!

In addition to a beautiful centering exercise by @Caren Stelson, through which we visited our shadows and brought them into bright sunlight, we shared impromptu reflections of meaningful objects that we have in our spaces - and what they tell about us.

In 1:1 breakouts that allowed time for connection, we talked about what peace means to us - and how it interacts with justice. I was blessed to have @Andrea Pope as my partner, and we had a sparkling conversation about the importance of seeing and validating one another as an act of peace and justice. Andrea talked about cultural patterns that create shame by demanding us to give up ourselves to conform - how when we do that we feel violated and are prone to rebel or "self-eliminate." (David Hawkings). So, one aspect of peace and justice is creating spaces where we can be ourselves and bring our full gifts to community.

We talked about how our systems are broken - in part, because they are created by us, as humans, with our own flaws and brokenness, but also our gifts. To break through with justice, we need to maximize the strengths (whether from culture or neuro-diversity) of each individual - and the collective strengths in the "system." Andrea and I shared personal stories of how we sought to integrate body, mind and soul in our own lives!

In our full circle, I shared Mark Nepo's poem, This Takes Time  from his new book, "The Half-Life of Angels":

What you drop, I pick up. We don't even have to be in the same place to benefit each other.

As an apple draws life from the sun before it lands in the mouth of a skinny deer,

The Unnamable Spirit sets the laughter of a child in the path of someone's misfortune.

They say when painters squint, the threads of light become more visible. Just so.

As we let go our definitions, what holds the Universe together shows itself.

Our co-lead Julie shared an opportunity for the interactive online session, (Seeking Peace) Be the Change to experience breath and meditation exercises and interactive dialogue to promote peace on Saturday, August 12th, 10:00am Central.

We're excited to spend time with you again for our Wednesday, September 6th Peace & Justice meeting from 11:00am to 12:30pm Central!

May you be (at) peace,

“When we are training in the art of peace, we are not given any promises that because of our noble intentions everything will be okay. In fact, there are no promises of fruition at all. Instead, we are encouraged to simply look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, at all that lives and dies.  We learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.”

Pema Chodron

View this short video (1:15)

Do you view yourself as a creative being?  Do you believe that your thoughts, words and actions are energy that transform into our physical world?  (Why / Maybe / Why Not?)

How does this belief/view impact your journey of 'seeking peace within'?