Feeling caught in a fight, compassion for all sides, amid passions and desires and divisions, trying to be present for all. Fearing that comfort offered to one party will appear as a threat to others. Where did we lose the Love? May we find our way to… …see our blind spots and the pain […]
Conflict Transformation
Conflicts present a chance to grow… to build relationships…. John Lederach1 teaches: Conflict transformation is to envision and respond to the ebb and flow of social conflict as life-giving opportunities for creating constructive change processes that reduce violence, increase justice in direct interaction and social structures, and respond to real-life problems in human […]
Love America, Defend America
How can you say you Love your country if you have disdain for a large portion of your fellow citizens? How can we disagree with someone’s ideas or beliefs without hating who they are as a fellow human being? And what do we do about the disagreements? What if we feel threatened by the political […]
“Action must be inspired by a deep-rooted sense of love”
Huffington Post interviewed two monastics at Plum Village. The message? Acting out of a place of anger does not help. People who are passionate about taking action should learn from the nonviolent approach of Rev. Martin Luther King. When we are at a place of peace and love, we can offer recognition to others, to […]
Not truly free…
I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken away from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. €” Nelson Mandela
A practical reason to Love
Reason and Love might seem to have nothing to do with each other, but interestingly enough, anger can be dispelled by being open and curious – i.e. emotion checked by reason. High emotions (such as Fear) or strong convictions can lead to motivated reasoning – where pre-existing attitudes or beliefs lead to rejecting factual information. […]
Judge actions, not people
We need to judge actions, not people. We need to see that every child of God has moments of behavior that does not define who they are. We can continue to be Loving of the person while saying that what they do is wrong. This is, however, not the same as “love the sinner, hate […]
Having compassion
During the next four years, something will happen that will make Donald Trump look as though he let down the American people. It happened to President Obama, such as Benghazi, the IRS Tea Party investigations, and the NSA surveillance revelations. There have also been senior administration officials who misbehaved in office. Such incidents occur in […]
Pledge for peace
We’re all in this together.
Love drives out fears
How do we come together, especially after we have disagreed in a non-loving way? We start with Love. Rev. William Barber preaches this message. He speaks out against those who would oppress and invites them to join in a loving fusion coalition. How do we address fear? We start with Love.