Find details here.
"The only way the world will change is if many more of us step forward, let go of our judgements, become curious about each other, and take the risk to begin a conversation."
"Fear destroys human capacity; therefore we are called to be fearless... If we don't learn how to move past our fears, we will not be able to host conversation or become active on behalf of this troubled, still beautiful world."
"What would it feel like again to be listening to each other again about what disturbs and troubles us? About what gives us energy and hope?"
"Conversation takes time. We need to sit together, to listen, to worry and dream together. As this age of turmoil tears us apart, we need to reclaim time to be together. Otherwise, we cannot stop the fragmentation."
"We need to be able to talk with those we have named enemy. Fear of each other also keeps us apart... We can't imagine what we would learn from them, or what might become possible if we spoke to those we most fear."
"How do we evoke people's innate creativity and caring?"
"We can't be creative if we refuse to be confused."
"Juanita Brown, community organizer -- All change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about. Simple conversations held at kitchen tables, or seated on the ground, or leaning against doorways are powerful means to start influencing and changing our world."
"How can we become people we respect, people who are generous, loving, curious, open, energetic? How can we ensure at the end of our lives, we'll feel that we have done meaningful work, created something that endured?"
"I've found that I can only change how I act if I stay aware of my beliefs and assumptions. Thoughts always reveal themselves in behavior."
"Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation."
"We become hopeful when somebody tells the truth. I don't know why that is, but I experience it often."
"Truly connecting with another human being gives us joy. The circumstances that create this connection don't matter. Even those who work side by side in the worst natural disaster or crisis recall that experience as memorable. They are surprised to feel joy in the midst of tragedy, but they always do."
"We have to slow down. We need time to think, to learn, to get to know each other."
"In the presence of so many specialized techniques for doing simple things, we've become suspicious of anything that looks easy. And those of us who have technical expertise are especially suspicious. I've seen myself pull back from simple more than once because I realized I wouldn't be needed any longer."
"Scientists are taught to seek the simpler solution. If there's a choice between two possibilities, they choose the simpler one. Simple solutions are called "elegant" in science. The beauty of the universe expresses itself in simplicity."
"we acknowledge one another as equals
we try to stay curious about each other
we recognize that we need each other's help to become better listeners
we slow down so we have time to think and reflect
we remember that conversation is the natural way humans think together
we expect it to be messy at times"
"It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgements about each other that do."
"One question to ask of your conversation circle is: Who else should be here?"
"New voices revive our energy, and oftentimes help us discover solutions to problems that seem unsolvable. If your conversation circle is stuck, or getting bored, or becoming short-tempered, open the gates and bring in new people.
I work from the principle that if we want to change the conversation, we have to change who's in the conversation."
"We don't decide what our vocation is, we receive it. It always originates from outside us. Therefore, we can't talk about vocation or a calling without acknowledging that there is something going on beyond our narrow sense of self. It helps remind us that there's more than just me, that we're part of a larger and purpose-filled place."
"I believe we become more fully human with any gesture of generosity, any time we reach out to another rather than withdraw into our individual suffering."
"There are many people whose actions anger me and make me afraid - but I don't like how I feel when I respond to them from fear. At those times, I don't feel more human, but less. I become more fully human when I extend myself."
"Where does the future come from? It often feels these days as if the future arrives from nowhere. Suddenly things feel unfamiliar, we're behaving differently, the world doesn't work the way it used to. We're surprised to find ourselves in this new place - it's uncomfortable and we don't like it. The future doesn't take form irrationally, even though it feels that way. The future comes from where we are now. It materializes from the actions, values, and beliefs we're practicing now. We're creating the future everyday, by what we choose to do. If we want a different future, we have to take responsibility for what we are doing in the present."
"The gap between knowing and doing is only bridged by the human heart. If we are willing to open our hearts to what's really going on, we will find the energy to become active again."
"It is time for us to notice what's going on, to think about this together, and to make choices about how we will act. We can't keep rejecting solutions because they require us to change our behavior. We could start by talking about how we feel about what's going on."
"When obedience and compliance are the primary values, then creativity, commitment, and generosity are destroyed."
"We want to be reminded about human goodness."
"What becomes available to us when we greet each other as fully human? ... We can help one another by trusting that others, too, are fully human. And then we can invite them to step forward with their goodness."
"In a clear night sky, for every star we see, there are 50 million more behind it."
"What's happening to us as we continue to be bombarded by so much human suffering? What is our coping strategy, conscious or not? I sense that more of us are shutting down... Or if the suffering is close to home, we get angry..."
"When I bear witness. I turn toward another and am willing to let their experience enter my heart."
"Why is being heard so healing? I don't know the full answer to that question, but I do know it has something to do with the fact that listening creates relationship."
"[Many teenagers] feel ignored and discounted, and in pain they turn to each other to crete their own subcultures..."
"Her attentive silence gave him space to see himself, to hear himself..."
"You can't hate someone whose story you know."
"
"We ignored life's principle of restrained growth... We ignored life's cyclical nature, where decay is the most essential element in a healthy system, and instead assumed we could always be improving, never resting, never ill... We ignored life's mode of organizing in small, local systems, where small is beautiful, and instead took pride in building the biggest we could, create .. organizations so large they are unmanageable."
"biologist E.O. Wilson -- If all humanity disappeared, the rest of life would benefit enormously. However were any other major species to disappear, for example, ants, the results would be major extinctions of other species and probably partial collapse of some ecosystems. The whole earth would suffer if it lost any other species except humans."
"Life becomes stronger and more capable through systems of collaboration and partnering, not through competition."
"A healthy ecosystem is always composed of many diverse species living together as a network of cooperation. Each member of the network eats from a specific part of the food web and leaves the rest for others.... every species is essential to the entire web. We believe we can destroy those species that threaten or annoy us, and no harm will be done anywhere else in the web. We still act surprised, when efforts to eliminate one pest end up turning fertile fields into clay or desert, destroying birds, frogs, and thousands of species in the soil, air and water. We not only kill the pest, we also destroy all those species that are essential to healthy fields."
"Fiona Mitchell--- We have to take care of everything, because it's all part of the same thing."
"As we become busier, with less time to sit and talk to each other, we increasingly reach for these short-hand identifiers. The result is that we know less about each other, but assume we know more."
"When I identify myself as a white, American, middle-aged woman, of English and German heritage, how adequately does that describe me? These categories may give me a personal sense of location in the world, but over a lifetime, they aren't nearly big enough to describe who I am."
"If I want you to acknowledge my gifts, I have to be curious about yours. I have a responsibility to look for and honor yours. We create enough space for our own self-expression only by inviting in everybody else's uniqueness."
"Bernie Glassman, cofounder of the Zen Peacemaker Order, says the only thing we have in common is our differences. When we understand that, he says, we discover our oneness.... As paradoxical as it is, our unique expressions are the only source of light we have to see each other. We need the light from each unique jewel in order to illuminate our oneness."
"When we work for the common good, we experience each other in new ways. We don't worry about differences, or status, or traditional power relationships."
"These experiences give us the chance to change our minds about each other. We can see each other free from the roles and routines that conceal most of who we are... Free from the fatigue that keeps us too tired to be interested in each other."
"When we serve others, we gain more than hope. We gain energy. People who volunteer for a community... often arrive straight from work, exhausted. But after several hours of meaningful volunteer work, they go home energized."
"When sacred becomes a special rather than common experience, it become difficult to feel fully alive and human."
"In a sacred moment, I experience that wholeness. I know I belong here. I don't think about it, I simply feel it. Without any work on my part, my heart opens and my sense of "me" expands. I'm no longer locked inside a small self. I don't feel alone or isolated. I feel here. I feel welcomed."
"I felt joy, yet I was crying. I felt peaceful, yet very energized. I felt like me, but I was more than me."
"We can't experience sacred in isolation. It is always an experience of connecting. It doesn't have to be another person... It can be a connection with an idea, a feeing, an object, a tradition. The connection moves us outside ourselves into something greater. Because we move out beyond ourselves, the experience of sacred is often described as spacious, open, liberating. We learn that we are larger than we thought."
"We invite these moments when we open to life and to each other. In those grace-filled moments of greeting, we know we're part of all this, and that it's all right."
"Fearlessness, too, has love at its core, but it requires much more of us than instant action. If we react too quickly when we feel afraid, we either flee or act aggressively... Zen teacher Joan Halifax speaks about the practice of non-denial. When we feel afraid, we don't deny the fear. Instead we acknowledge that we're scared. But we don't flee... We turn toward [the fear], we become curious about it, its causes, its dimensions. We keep moving closer until we'e in relationship with it. And then fear changes. Most often it disappears."
"When we're brave enough to risk a conversation, we have the chance to rediscover what it means to be human. In conversation.. we become more visible to one another."
""Conversation can only take place among equals. If anyone feels superior, it destroys conversation... Those who act superior can't help but treat other as objects to accomplish their causes and plans."
"Speaking to each other involves risk. It's often difficult to extend ourselves, to let down our guard, especially with those we fear or avoid. When we're willing to overcome our fear and speak to them, that is a gesture of love. Strangely, what we say is not that important. We have ended the silence that keeps us apart."
"When we are courageous enough to honor ourselves, we offer everyone their humanity."
"Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. Talk to people you know. Talk to people you don't know. Talk to people you never talk to."
"Treasure curiosity more than certainty."
"Remember, you don't fear people whose story you know."
No comments:
Post a Comment