Peace + Justice

Hi all,

Excited to see this group getting started! Thanks to the organizers for the work you've already put into it, and will continue to do so.

I'm a movement organizer, circle keeper, and peacebuilding trainer based in Minneapolis, MN, but also working internationally. I came into peacebuilding through religious work. Through years of working in vulnerable and disenfranchised urban communities, often with people with very different backgrounds and experiences than my own, my priorities and beliefs shifted from telling people about the heaven that might be waiting for them, to working with them to experience "heaven"—shalom, peace, and reconciliation—in our communities. That shifted my focus to community development, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, community organizing, and social justice activism.

In the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020 and the subsequent uprising in the Twin Cities, my local peacebuilding has focused on different aspects of racial healing and justice work. In my work with Peace Catalyst, I also spend time training people in peace and conflict skills while helping to cultivate a peacebuilding movement in faith communities and neighborhoods.

I'm attracted to the positive, constructive possibilities of conflict—leaning into conflict, welcoming conflict, sometimes even escalating conflict, because we believe there is something better on the other side of it. Conflict is not a problem but an opportunity.

Many traditions embrace this. Peace studies talks about positive and negative peace, the construction of good versus simply ending hostilities. Kingian Nonviolence talks about the Beloved Community, where conflict is present but is handled with love. My peace church traditions understand shalom, peace, as the creation of good in community. Other nonviolence traditions teach the embodied model of "two hands", with one hand extended in invitation, and the other hand held up to stop the harm.

This, I think, is the place where justice intersects with peace. Peace is not peace unless it is a just peace. The work of growing and building peace, of healing hearts and communities and societies, means struggling for justice, equity, and inclusion for everyone, even as we mend relationships and cultivate reconciliation.

Looking forward to connecting more!

I am Trent Batson, a retired professor and environmental advocate, Vice President of Groundwork RI, and interested in the Weavers organization.  I have admired David Brooks for decades, even if I don't always agree, so am very happy he has started this organization that seems to me is spot on in its mission.

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

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?

Welcome to the Weave Peace + Justice topic group! We are very glad you are here. The vision for this online peer learning community is to deepen our individual & collective healing, growth and impact as we weave for peace and justice.

Ways to Contribute to this Online Space

We are growing this group together and we invite you to share about what you're up to and how we can support each other’s peace + justice weaving work. Here are some ways to engage:

1. Introduce Yourself: We have a discussion page dedicated to getting a little glimpse into one another's stories, which helps weave us together for peace + justice. Tell us about yourself on this page.

2. Join Upcoming peace +  justice centered Gatherings and Events. Head to the calendar and you are also welcome to add/share other relevant happenings here.  We meet virtually on the first Wednesday of each month.

3. Add to the Discussion(s): Share and respond to questions, ideas, musings, comments and more via our general discussions forum.  Check back here regularly.

4. Exchange Resources:

5. Know of any peace + justice centered weaving organizations? We're starting a directory and you can add ones you know to this list.

6. How do YOU want to connect and use this space? Reply in the comments and also know that we will also create opportunities to gather your feedback and input.

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If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at any time!
Weave Peace + Justice Co-Leads

@Julie Lillie @Kate Towle  @Lyndon Rego @Caren Stelson  @darlene

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.

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/

In today's session, we explored together the concept and actions of surpassing our fear as community peacebuilders. For future sessions, we will follow a pattern, alternating between sessions for learning and growth; gathering for healing; and improvisational exploration to address emerging peace and justice issues.

Elehah Pooyandeh, a peace educator and mediator in Iran, anchored our session in a reflection on the source of our life force and love. She asked us to reflect on someone that we love dearly, observe responses to that love in our bodies, and direct our attention and feelings to that loving energy. We explored how to approach our activism from this center of love within us and how to return to it as needed.

In 1:1 dialogues, we shared our names, delving into their origins and how they contribute to our identity and our work for peace and justice.

Tom Kotlarek, our co-facilitator incorporates meditation to transcend fear with love, helped us identify fears that "activate" us: the fear of failure and the fear of social abandonment. Tom emphasized the importance of recognizing these fears and where they reside in us, using them to gain clarity in our approach and stretch with love towards justice. Just as we lift the amount of weight that will strengthen, not tear, our muscles, so can we stretch our limits to build capacity and growth as activists for social change.

For our breakout groups, we discussed the question, "How would you like to stretch beyond fear as a community peacebuilder?" Thoughtful responses included: working collaboratively with others; being mindful of what we absorb; challenging social perceptions, embodying courage for future generations; and accessing God - or what is holy and sacred in our lives.

Our next opportunity is the workshop, Trauma Aware Peacelearning, a 90-minute virtual workshop on Wed., March 13th from 6:30-7:45pm Central.

At our next monthly virtual Weave Peace & Justice meeting on Shifting Peace Within Yourself, scheduled Wed., April 2nd from 11:00am to 12:30pm Central, Tom Kotlarek will lead a guided meditation healing session.

If you'd like to join us as a co-facilitator, please reach out to me at: kteemuse@gmail.com.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended and to those reading this summary!

@Kate Towle

I am beyond thrilled and honored to be a part of this incredible group of weavers. Reading everyone’s introduction was truly inspiring.  I am a relationship coach and actress and believe the five peace actions are as applicable to our personal relationships as they are to weaving in the world.  Our relationship with community and the world at large is after all a macrocosm of our experience in our personal relationships.  I am an ardent advocate of  a skills based approach both in my coaching and personal work and look forward to integrating The Five Peace Actions consciously into my practice.  

Though I have participated in several circles and led a few of them, my community weaving is lacking and that is one of the reasons I am here.  I want to learn how I can be more effective and impactful in a broader sense.

Thank you for inviting me, Kate!  And I look forward to connecting with and learning from all of you!

With gratitude,

Katya

World Citizen Peace is dedicated to empowering people to create a just and peaceful world.

World Citizen Peace offers three pathways to peace...

• by joining as an international peace site
• becoming a peace ambassador
• supporting peace education in our homes, schools, and in the wider community.

The purpose of peace education is to help us become more mindful about peace in our daily lives, provide ideas, and resources for peace action, and learn from peacemakers in the world so that together we can create cultures of peace where we work and live.

World Citizen Pathways are grounded firmly in our five peace actions:

• SEEK peace within yourself and others.
• REACH OUT in service
• PROTECT the environment
• RESPECT diversity
• BE a responsible citizen of the world

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

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).

Greetings,

My name is CT Ehler, and I am a legal service representative and mediator. Peace and Justice issues always intrigued me, and for a long time I was genuinely interested in Alternative Dispute Resolution before I changed my profession. I long time volunteer and activist, former teacher and clinical healthcare practitioner, I transitioned into the legal and mediation profession during the 2020 pandemic. I also started a podcast to explore these issues as well, but I admit it's not a very popular topic to podcast about peace!

I am drawn to advocacy issues, and learning more about how we can connect people to conflict resolution strategies for empowerment in a supportive way.

I am really open to exploring and learning more about Weavers and the Peace and Justice community. I am excited to learn and grow together.

Thank you for including me in this community.

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

I love the idea of our group. I think it’s so important for us, as people, to express ourselves to one another. I want each of us to understand our peace and justice journey.

I’ve always been quiet and soft-spoken, yet a community person. My father was a people-person, and I followed in his footsteps. I have volunteered within the school system, mobilized neighbors, and we built relationships with one another through neighborhood clean-ups.

In Baltimore, on October 28th, 2008, my son, Dale, was killed in yet another officer-involved shooting. Dale was 29 years old—and the father of two daughters (my granddaughters) who are precious to me.

While this event shattered my world, it also gave me my voice.

Since that time, I have met many family members and mothers who have lost their children in this way. This has also led me to work on the front lines against gun violence in our country. My granddaughters are very supportive of the work I do in community.

I joined Weave because I value stories of why people have passion for community. I have wanted to meet people like me and to share ideas for healing in our neighborhoods. My journey is for health and wellness, and I want to be an inspiration. I want people to know our voices matter! We need to care about where we live before others come into our community to tell us what we need.

When we gain peace, we gain wellness together that boosts our health. We develop a spirit of forgiveness, and we find a way to move forward. We understand the things we can’t change. When we become a mirror for change, people can look at our example and adopt our healthy choices.

I want us to share our stories, to let one another know we’re not alone in our struggle. Being peaceful helps us on our path to healthy thinking and living. I want to get to know people in our community so that we can motivate each other and build a stronger world. #LoveWins

@Darlene Cain

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

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

Thank you to all who joined today for our session about the Living Room Conversations approach to dialogue around painful topics. Today, we centered our conversation on the Israel-HAMAS war.

We were grateful to be joined by David Munir Nabti, now living in Lebanon who supports social entrepreneurship in the Middle East.  David is part of the group Bloom, a peace and wellbeing group in the Middle East. He shared his experience of witnessing so closely the brutality and humanitarian crisis from this war.

I invite you to use the attached PowerPoint that @Darlene Cain and I developed for your work and the groups you facilitate. There are many effective approaches (or human technologies) for guiding strong dialogue. We like the Living Room Conversation approach because it is accessible, simple to follow, yet surfaces depth and context to difficult topics. We talked about grounding ourselves as we enter such a dialogue; allowing room to make acquaintance; offering guidelines; setting the tone for new perspectives to deepen our insight; and allowing time for group synthesis.

As we spoke together about how the war recalibrates our understanding of peace and the work it requires, we affirmed:

• the importance of respect for one another's experience;
• the value of hearing one another's stories;
• being present to one another for this long journey;
• celebrating each other's growth; and
• creating a space that allows us to voice how we really feel with a learning mindset - even though our view may be unpopular.

@Frances Kraft, our Community Manager, reminds us that Weave's free Learning Center offers another module to guide us through planning and facilitating conversations - discussing what to do when those conversations get hard. The module, created in partnership with @K Scarry at The People's Supper, is available at this link: https://learning.weavers.org/g...g/group-facilitation.

As in our session, I'll leave you with a reflection from author/theologian Thomas Merton:

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

We look forward to seeing you again on Wed.,  Dec. 6th from 11:00am to 12:30pm Central for our zoom session on Conscious Leadership.

Yours in peaceful weaving,

@Kate Towle

Join us at our next Community #Leadership Conversation led by Joel Wright and Lyndon Rego.

We will reconvene to build on the conversation and discussions on the implications of #consciousleadership, review topics and insights on creating the Conscious Leadership Tree that we began last month.

This #session will mostly small group conversations followed by sharing with the larger group. Come eager to #share with others, #learn from others, and #explore how we can advance conscious leadership in our work world and #communities.

You do not have to attend last month to join us this month. We are offering two sessions at different dates and times to accommodate everyone!

- Thursday, 26 Oct at 7PM EST: https://lnkd.in/eizea2aX
- Friday, 27 Oct at 12PM EST: https://lnkd.in/eJVAs3SX

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,

The International Association for Human Values offers programs to reduce stress and develop leaders so that human values can flourish in people and communities. IAHV and its initiative, Cities4Peace ,fosters the daily practice of human values – a sense of connectedness and respect for all people and the natural environment, an attitude of non-violence, and an ethic of social service. Programs enhance clarity of mind, shift attitudes and behaviors, and develop leaders and communities that are resilient, responsible, and inspired. Come together and design plans to mitigate violence and promote sustainable PEACE in our communities and neighborhoods.

IAHV was created in 1997 by global humanitarian leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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.

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/

“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

We invite all group members to align with the Five Peace Actions, created by the organization World Citizen Peace.   Consider this as a framework for living, being, sharing, learning, collaborating and exploration.

The peace actions are:

As a self-identified "community weaver,” I've been excited about Weave’s impact and potential since becoming a member in January 2022. I have served as a “Welcome Weaver,” to orient new members; as a co-facilitator of our Weave's Weekly Community Hour; and as a founding organizer of Twin Cities Weave. I’m the author of a novel about building humanity through interracial friendship (Sweet Burden of Crossing) and a community educator/facilitator. Above all, I’m a “quilter of relationships and perspectives.”

Twelve years before George Floyd was killed, I worked with my daughter and her friends to build an award-winning, after-school circle for youth to talk about race at South High School in Minneapolis (just blocks from where Police Precinct 3 would be burned down during the 2020 racial unrest). We’ve brought the approach to many spaces, including a graduate program in culturally responsive teaching at Saint Mary’s University in Minneapolis, and a community-building initiative, Sweet Potato Comfort Pie. Inviting young leaders to share their stories in the community grounded me in their real-time experiences and challenges. Hearing about their trauma inspired me to work with international peace educator, Paul K. Chappell, to spread practices of Peace Literacy as a developmental, skill-based process.

I love to offer learning spaces where we can share the unique cultural gifts that support our wellness, but also to talk openly about where healing is needed. As humans, we have been wired to feel great empathy. How can we cast our collective vote to extend the ripples and muscles of humanity? How can we stretch toward peace and justice—face the truth of our reality, bravely name the emotions that surface in us, sit with them as they inform us, then take bold, compassionate action to ignite our future?

My life has been transformed by learning that community-building can also bring dignity and hope in seminal moments of stretching personal capacity, as when I tended to my brother with complications from HIV-AIDS in the last few years of his life.

I feel grateful to be part of a group of passionate, skilled peace-builders who approach the work with reverence, wonder, and deep commitment. I’m eager to learn and grow with you as we stitch together a quilt with squares that reflect a strong vision of peace and justice.

The"Weaving Organizations" resource forum is a space to share all the amazing organizations nationwide that are weaving community around peace and justice topics. When adding an organization to the directory, be sure to share:

• Name of organization
• Location (address if possible)
• Description of how they are weaving community and the overall work
• Website and/or social media links
• Your connection to the organization, if you have any, in case someone wants to get in touch further

You can also find (and add!) weaving organizations and volunteer opportunities around various topics through theWeaver Network.

Dear Peacebuilders,

We began our May 1st session with the song First of May by James Taylor.

Our co-facilitator, Tom Kotlarek, led us through a process that he calls casting a circle so that we simultaneously become grounded and visualize a deeper connection to one another. We were joining positive energy from Tehran and Sénégal to Philadelphia and Arizona!

Using the "open mic" process, members were invited to share challenges with peacemaking they wanted to explore in more detail in breakouts. Our first prompt from Elaheh Pooyandeh was: How can we better accept the truth and the reality of things that we are facing?  The second from Marion Transetti was: How can we better balance the demands of our peace activities with our lives, our families and work?

Following twenty minutes of dialogue in our breakouts, Elaheh and Marion shared what they heard and learned from others in the small groups. Elaheh talked about how we are creating something together - and the challenges of dislodging conflict over centuries. She talked about the importance of taking small steps and having clarity on what is ours to do, our unique role. While it is hard to accept that we don't have to do everything ourselves, we can internalize that each of us is a piece to the puzzle.  Marion learned that each of us must periodically give ourselves time for a "reset" to review our priorities and honor what we really need. We must let go of what we can't control and find support through a network of people we trust.

Barry spoke to the importance of having an identity and invited us to be part of the Peace Brook network he is spearheading with Chicago residents. Julie pointed out that we can list our "weaving organizations" on the Weave Peace and Justice Group page under "Resources," at Weaving Organizations.

We wrapped up with a quote by  Sister Joan Chittister: Perseverance with hard things can be the source of the greatest pleasure, the deepest satisfaction. What we work hard to achieve, we value most.

Our next session, a skill-building session will be on Wed., June 5th, 11:00am to 12:30pm Central: Empathic Fluency: The Art of Listening.

Yours in peacebuilding,

@Kate Towle, Co-Facilitator

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

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

Equipping, connecting, and uplifting peacebuilders worldwide

https://www.euphrates.org/

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!

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

We ask members that all of our virtual gatherings, circles, discussions, posts and comments follow these agreements.  Please be mindful of your role in maintaining a supportive learning community.

• Find value in deep relationship & community success
• Confidentiality - stay in the group
• Speak your truth with grace (owning the impact)
• Assume positive intentions (compassion, empathy, assumption)
• Lean in to curiosity & vulnerability (ask questions, reflection, facilitative questioning)

• I am because we are (UBUNTU); Generative
• Work for the change we want to see & Do our innerwork

Peace + Justice gathers virtually every 1st Wednesday of the month @11-12:30 cst

Check out the calendar for specifics about upcoming virtual events, circles and gatherings, as well as the Zoom link!

The Peace Pad is for anyone who is passionate about peace and justice education and wants to make a positive impact in their learning environments and communities.

www.thepeacepad.org

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