here's the link to the Restorative Justice gofundme campaign!

http://www.gofundme.com/4jf3p8

Want to participate in bringing Restorative Justice: A Path to Peace to Asian and Muslim college students, peace activists and professionals in a Peace Studies program in Thailand beginning in January? I've been invited to share Restorative Justice principles, practices and experiential exercises, based on over a decade of experience in Taos, New Mexico and 2 decades designing and facilitating trainings. As a volunteer instructor with no honorarium I need to raise funds for travel and expenses. YOU CAN HELP! Donate at http://www.gofundme.com/4jf3p8

Don't like to contribute via the internet? email me and I'll send you my mailing address! Share this information with friends who might be interested in helping this work spread among people who can share it in the communities where they live, study and work. And Airline rewards miles are accepted gratefully!

Listen to this interview about Restorative Justice on Peace Talks Radio! Its with me, Chris Weathers of Taos and the RJOY program in Oakland!

Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice: A Path to Peace

Gratitude to all the people, known and unknown to me, who are helping me teach Restorative Justice as a Path to Peace in Thailand. Some are donating what they can afford, others are sharing my post on FB and twittering...it all makes a difference.
My name and photo are what you see on Go Fund Me, but it's the work itself that truly matters and I seem to be the vehicle to take it to this particular group of people, at this particular time.
Its wonderful that this Peace and Conflict Resolution Program believe in Restorative Justice and are willing to  devote days to practicing it!

 I'll write about the program as if unfolds and bring home what I learn from those I've been asked to teach!

 As a volunteer I need to raise the travel funds and expenses...perhaps you can help! Airline miles are welcome!

The link is http://www.gofundme. om/4jf3p8

Council or Circle Process

    Council is a circle of communication that draws on the practice of story telling. Its roots lie in Quaker and Native traditions. It’s a process based on the appreciation of diversity rather than consensus; inviting the expression of individual experience as a means to deepen and clarify collective understanding.
          In Council we’re encouraged to listen to ourselves & others with open minded attention, free of the need to respond or create judgments about each other’s comments. We practice listening and speaking from a place that honors each person’s experience; creating an atmosphere of appreciation that increases the potential for creatively exploring issues and allows us to hear the arising of group wisdom.
                      
                             
                                   
                                     In Council the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

 Council offers a way to:

•      explore a topic from many perspectives
•      make group decisions based on a deeper understanding of the elements involve
•      share life experience
•      touch into untapped resource 
•     renew and illuminate individual hopes, dreams and  goal 
•     bring vitality to a group’s vision, intention & commitmen
•     place individual experience within the context of community
•    address change, resistance, conflict and challenges

    Basic guidelines:
1. Speak freely, trusting that what you have to offer is useful to the whole. Speak from a place that is real and alive in the moment.

2. Listen attentively. Allow yourself to receive the words of the circle the way earth receives rain, without prejudice. Let your whole body do the listening.

3. Speak spontaneously. If you are planning your words you aren’t listening to others.

4. Be lean of expression. Say enough to express yourself and trust that you will be understood.

5. Don’t share another’s story without their express permission.

The Fabric of Our Lives and the Hidden Stitches that Weave Us Together

Welcome to Restorative Connections.  Whether through my work in death and dying, meditation, learning ceremony from gifted teachers, or facilitating Restorative Justice,  my work and practice and personal growth for the last 2 decades has shared a common focus: a commitment to learning how connections can be strengthened and repaired and how a heart that is not broken, but broken-open, can make all the difference.  

Not long ago I was looking at my Rakasu, a small Zen "bib" made of several pieces of fabric that create a whole; stitched together with hidden stitches.  In making a Zen priest's robe, every stitch is a prayer.

Our lives are like that too.  The fabric of our life is fashioned from experiences and relationships; relationships to people, to animals, to our work and to the natural world.  Relationships built from experiences with our own true nature and our own good heart.

And its all held together with small hidden stitches that are not visible to others; threads of experience and relationship that are perhaps prayers, or the answer to a prayer.

Sometimes the threads can seem to unravel or the fabric becomes frayed, not merely by the inevitable wear and tear and passing of time, but by conflict, disappointment and loss, by forgetfulness or fear.

Perhaps there's been conflict with loved ones or disappointment with our larger community. We might have "lost" people or places we loved, or find that we no longer have a sense of global connection.  Maybe we've lost touch with what used to have meaning, lost our sense of being part of nature,  lost our sense of "belonging" to the world around us, or become disheartened. Maybe we can't seem to find the optimism that once enlivened our days...or the open-hearted love and joy that gave color and texture to our life.

The unraveling and fraying can seem irreparable.
 
I'll be sharing my experience with Council Process, Bearing Witness, Peacemaking Circles and Restorative Justice with you as ways to make restorative connections.  We'll explore the ways that deep listening, mythology, ceremony, poetry and art can bring us back to a sense of wholeness.

We can bring the fabric of our life with all its pieces, with their imperfections and beauty, close to our heart again, where it belongs. We can restore the fabric of our life.

I hope you'll join me in this exploration and share your hard won wisdom and the restorative connections you've used to re-create wholeness.

Want to know more about who I am and what I'm up to?
 Go to rose-underthebigbluesky.blogspot.com

or visit http://www.circleofcompassionatecare.com

Posted by Rose at 10:20 PM 2 comments: