For the holidays my familia (which includes the families of all my brothers) will be sharing conversations about gratitude, love and positive change. Our theme is “Celebrating the Holidays in the Era of Obama”. We will make the dialogues happen informally while doing meal preparation and around the jigsaw puzzles we do instead of watching television. It will also be the focus of our traditional talking circle for Christmas and then New Years. Our anticipated outcomes are increased connection with each other, more inspiration, and the evolution of multiple ideas that we can later turn into projects for mutual support and community action.
The following outline provides a step-by-step plan to organize a family talking circle with the agenda of expressing love and conversing about positive change. As some families are not ready for such communication, simplify the plan to meet your reality or organize a conversation among your friends. Remember by initiating such dialogues we deepen our skills to listen to each other and use conversation to support positive action.
(more…)
Categories: Uncategorized
The Christmas holidays are upon! Last year I didn’t stop to consider the significance of the times, until it was past. This year, I started my reflection early and know what I’m going to do to make Christmas joyful.
During our familia Thanksgiving gathering we had our traditional talking circle, in which we took turns sharing our feelings of gratitude and thoughts or concerns for the coming year. Our conversation then turned to the upcoming Christmas season. We all agreed upon the vision of a low stress, quality time— feel no gift-giving obligations, share meaningful conversations, and homemade presents are preferred.
A current best selling book is “The Purpose of Christmas.” For me the read was too religious and steeped in the old idea of sin and salvation. However, it got me thinking about the purpose of Christmas that I want to live. To honor the birth of the child who became Jesus, I want to celebrate life and love. Here I share a piece of my evolving “how”—savor the time and meaningful conversations.
I’m such a dedicated activist that I often don’t take time to savor the goodness around me. So, my first resolution is to break away from the anxiety of this period to simply savor life around me—relationships, food, breath, thoughts, stars, plants, and moments I share with people. In doing so I’m beginning to discover even more gratitude for the blessings in my life.
(more…)
Categories: Uncategorized
