Greetings, Marshall, Valentina, Margo, Board and LT members, CNVC Staff,
Trainers and Candidates,


Back in April, 2006, I felt on fire with inspiration and gratitude to be
involved with CNVC. Jori and I had moved to California a few months before
so she could become the interim director. Although I had great admiration
(and trepidation) for her willingness to take that on, I had more interest
in cooking her dinner than doing the work of an ED.


One way I did contribute was by helping out answering the phone during
office staff meetings. I especially enjoyed connecting with folks in our
network, even when they were unhappy. That experience really helped me to
sharpen my skills of presence.


Once, I listened to someone who reported feeling very angry about some
things that had transpired in the past between them and CNVC. It seemed
hard for this person to connect with any gratitude for anything that CNVC
had done. I remember feeling confused and sad about this.


Connecting to my need for acknowledgment and gratitude inspired me to write
a blog post entitled “More than 50 ways CNVC has contributed to me”. In
light of Glenda’s recent request to inquire about our Appreciation, I dug it
back out, dusted it off, revised it and offer it again in the Spirit of
Gratitude.


Thanks, Glenda, for making your request to connect to gratitude around my
relationship to CNVC. Although the past couple of years have offered me
challenges to keeping my heart open in my dealings with CNVC, number 1 on my
current list of gratitudes is the growth and liberation that those
interactions have inspired in me.


Right now, when I think of Marshall, The CNVC leadership and staff, and the
network of Certified Trainers, candidates, practitioners and Friends, I'm
savoring warmth and appreciation...


“More than 50 ways CNVC has contributed to me”


1. Co-sponsored the mediation training where I first met Marshall (a golden
oldie!) (and a life transforming event!)

2. Organized the first IIT I attended in Puerto Rico (another golden oldie)

3. Offered Special Sessions that included NVC practitioners from around the
world to work directly with Marshall, inspiring social transformation
projects

4. Provide a website with a listing of me and my training offerings,
accessible by anyone anywhere with a computer

5. Give me a logo and a "brand" with ever increasing recognition

6. Give me a community wherever I go in the world

7. Open doors for me because of Marshall's reputation and the inspiration
his work continues to engender

8. Answer the phone whenever I call for support

9. Answer an email whenever I need support

10. Act as a warehouse for my book and material sales

11. Ship me books and other materials whenever I want, at a discount that
helps to support me

12. Certify me as a trainer, and thus open doors for me

13. Offer me the opportunity for a tax deductible donation to a cause I
believe in

14. Make and keep agreements to protect the Nonviolent Communication service
mark and copyrights

15. Make and keep agreements to provide me with an ever-increasing number of
materials: books, cds, videos, cassettes, pamphlets, newsletters, puppets,
ears, etc

16. Give me a list of skilled people in every part of the world to help me
connect my friends and family with NVC

17. Give me a network of people to support me in growing myself, my
practice, my training offerings

18. Give me a source for inspirational stories, testimonials, etc

19. Provide me with sound bytes of Marshall wisdom

20. Built a network and community of 200+ Certified trainers of which I am a
part

21. Built a network of hundreds of local NVC supporters around the world

22. Organize and implement Marshall's schedule which continues to be a
primary way NVC is spread throughout the world

23. Offers scholarships to folks to assist them to attend training when they
do not otherwise have the means to do so

24. Act as a central clearinghouse for information and other resources.

25. Offers and provides supportive services to a Board of Directors to guide
the mission and vision of CNVC and NVC

26. Maintains tax exempt charity status in the USA

27. Offers free materials to those who have a need but not the ability to
pay

28. Offers open board and other meetings to contribute to transparency and
clarity.

29. Offers access to provide blogs on cnvc.org

30. Offers resources for my students to access on the website

31. Fosters connection through promoting e-groups

32. Offers a feedback mechanism through the CNVC website to collect
appreciations and mournings related to CNVC decisions

33. Fosters worldwide community through the Global Community Circle.

34. Struggles to create a life serving system within a domination structure

35. Offers ongoing training to CNVC staff

36. Offers IIT's in Europe and the USA

37. Offers a mechanism to connect trainers with requests for training
throughout the world

38. Offers a community of trainers connected through yearly reports and our
yahoo group

39. Does fund-raising to continue to support the work

40. Is beginning to live the dream of a multi-lingual organization

41. Protects the copyright and service mark for my use as a certified
trainer

42. Provides resources that I can use to make my own materials in my
training

43. Provides resources that I can use to continue to deepen my practice of
NVC

44. Re-opened the Certification path for folks near completion while
continuing to work on revamping the system

45. Provides inspiration and support to spiritual seekers in many
traditions, and those who are hungry for spirituality "outside" a tradition

46. Sponsors the gratitude project

47. Provided me the opportunity to volunteer in meaningful projects, like
the GCC, staff training and LT

48. Contributed to my financial sustainability and opportunities for
community by inviting me to organize several IITs and Special Sessions

49. Provided me with the opportunity to meet and make life-long friends
among the CNVC board and staff, especially Danielle, William, Dot, John
Buck, The Wileys, Stefan, Dee and Miguel

50. Introduced me to open space, sociocracy and many other valuable tools
and technologies

51. Created and fostered a training network that fulfilled my need to learn
NVC by providing me with quality trainers and collaborators (especially
Marshall Rosenberg, Christa Morf, Jorge Rubio, Eva Rambala, John Kinyon, Wes
Taylor, Robert Gonzales, John Cunningham, Towe Wildstrand, Sura Hart, Sylvia
Haskvitz, Lucy Leu, Rodger Sorrow, Anne Bouritt, Kirsten Kristensen,
Karsten, Schact-Petersen, Marianne Gothlin, Liv Larson, Andreas Basu,
Dominic Barter, Gary Baran, Miki and Inbal Kashtan, Gregg Kendrick, Mary
MacKenzie, Bridget Belgrave, Gina Lawrie, Catherine Cadden, Myra Walden,
Jeff Brown, Susan Skye, Liv Monroe, Barbara Larson, Jacob Gotwals, Jack
Lehman, Hawkeye Landis, Rita Herzog, and last but from least, Jori
Manske.*)


I’m guessing if I tried, I could come up with 50 more!


Would you be willing to say how you feel, right now, connecting to this with
me?

With Celebration,


Jim



*It was massively fun for me to make this list of my teachers. I'm sad that
it is likely that I inadvertently left someone off the list. This means
more about the state of my memory that the impact you all have had on me!

Greetings, friends,

I recently received the online newsletter for Upaya, a Zen center in Santa Fe.

I felt touched reading the following Declaration. It also stimulated sadness in me, because I care about transforming systems in a more life-serving, life-enriching way. So, below is the response I wrote to the declaration...


DECLARATION OF THE PRECIOUSNESS OF LIFE: NO TO THE DEATH PENALTY
Text of a card that you can carry in your wallet to express your principles regarding the death penalty:

“I, the undersigned, being of sound mind and memory, do hereby in the presence of witnesses make this Declaration about the preciousness of life. Should I die as a result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any circumstances, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I may have suffered. The death penalty would only increase my suffering. 
 


I request that the Prosecutor or District Attorney having the jurisdiction of the person or persons alleged to have committed my homicide not file or prosecute an action for capital punishment as a result of my homicide. 
 


This Declaration is not meant to be, and should not be taken as, a statement that the person or persons who have committed my homicide should go unpunished. 



I request that my family and friends take whatever actions are necessary to carry out the intent and purpose of this Declaration and request them to take no action contrary to this Declaration.

My response:

Dear Ones,

I'm touched by the Spirit of the wallet card you all offer in the latest newsletter, because the preciousness of Life is dear to me for it offers an opportunity to awaken.

Although no one can argue with the effectiveness of the death penalty (the offender is guaranteed never to offend again!), the cost of state-sponsored violence and retribution is too great for me to bear. Retribution and vengeance almost always stimulate fear and submission to external authority, and even 21st century forensic science cannot guarantee the elimination of the chance that an innocent person is killed by the state.

I am also deeply saddened reading the line, “This Declaration is not meant to be, and should not be taken as, a statement that the person or persons who have committed my homicide should go unpunished”, because I see that punishment of any kind reinforces the thinking of vengeful duality that perpetuates so much suffering. Until we heal from the thinking that any one of us deserves to be punished, none of us will be truly liberated!

Study after study consistently shows that punishment does not increase the likelihood of an "offender" refraining from taking actions that do not contribute to mutual well-being. In fact, punishment, from shaming to spanking to punitive imprisonment, all increase the likelihood that future offenses will occur. The death penalty is the only exception, at least in the current incarnation! If punishment works, why are our prisons and jails increasing their populations faster than we can build new cells?

For me, it calls into question what our reasons are for requesting the behavior we would like...Do we want submission out of fear of retributive punishment or would we prefer respect for authority because it is easy to connect with the good reasons (protection of life, clarity, safety, etc.) that motivate rules, laws and the like?

So, if I carry a card in my wallet, I intend to replace the text in the third paragraph with the following:

"This Declaration is not meant to be, and should not be taken as, a statement that the person or persons who have committed my homicide should go without an opportunity to restore their place in society. Likewise, it does not indicate that society should go unprotected from persons who behave violently or without regard to mutual well-being. I encourage both the protective use of force (including state custody) and the implementation of restorative justice strategies to bring society, my family and the offender back into wholeness."

I would enjoy receiving your responses to this letter.

Warmly,

Jim Manske

Obama, Miracle on the Hudson and a Society of Collaborative Excellence

by James Melamed
from Mediate.com

---

What are the odds of Barack Obama becoming our President? His story is now our story. Obama’s election represents what is possible. Not what is normal nor what is expected, but what is possible.

And what are the odds of 155 passengers surviving a plane crash into the Hudson River? This is not everyday stuff. It is what is possible. It is what is best.

As the pilot saved so many lives, he also gifted so very much to the many thousands of husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends and colleagues who would have otherwise been so severely impacted. What a gift to thousands. This pilot deserves the highest medal we have. We should create a new medal for him, a medal for exceptional excellence.

As this pilot landed the plane without a life lost, especially just a few days before the Obama Inauguration, I can not help thinking of Obama as our pilot, the world’s pilot. While the future remains most challenging and highly uncertain, one just has a sense that, if anyone can land this plane, it will be Obama. How lucky we are to now not have ordinary leadership. How lucky we are that we have a fellow with so much competence and character. What are the odds? Whatever one’s party affiliation, I suggest that we as a nation are lucky to have a guy with the competence and cool that we now have “in the cockpit.”

And I see bigger things. I see a larger social commitment to collaborative excellence. Just as the passengers remarkably cooperated to exit the plane within 90 seconds, being courteous and effective under pressure, so I see our society evolving. While there will surely be mistakes and a good measure of pragmatism, one has a sense that Obama is leading a culture of collaborative excellence.

In Obama’s facilitative leadership, we see the best of the mediation and facilitation fields having made their way to the halls of power in our nation and the world. “We are all one” and our President is now on the network.

That Obama does not want to give up his Blackberry is so heartening. His rapid rise offers, among other things, a more recent understanding of the “real lives of real people.” Obama is addicted, like many of us, to being connected and to having access to as much information as possible. Our online connectedness is the daily manifestation of the world’s oneness.

And so, with the Obama Inauguration days away, and on the heels of the “Miracle on the Hudson,” I am surprisingly optimistic even in the pits of our economic collapse. Somehow, I have a sense that we are going to be able to put “this plane down” and recover, and even learn from our challenges and calamities.

Ours is a culture poised to recognize excellence in leadership and excellence in performance. “The Miracle on the Hudson” is our antidote to 9/11. It is us at our resourceful best rather than our victimized worst. If only out of necessity, we may now well be entering an era of collaborative excellence. Necessity breeds invention, often just in the nick of time. May it be so.

Biography

---

Jim Melamed co-founded Resourceful Internet Solutions (RIS) and Mediate.com in 1996. Before this, Jim founded The Mediation Center in Eugene, Oregon in 1983 and served as Executive Director of the national Academy of Family Mediators from 1987 to 1993.

Jim is past-Chair of the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission and a member of the Oregon State Bar. Jim teaches Mediation at the Pepperdine University School of Law's Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution.

Jim was the first President and Executive Director of the Oregon Mediation Association (1985) and received the OMA's 2003 Award for Excellence.

Jim Received the Oregon State Bar Dispute Resolution Section's 2006 Sidney Lezak Award of Excellence and the 2007 John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Jim's undergraduate degree is in in psychology, with honors, from Stanford University and his law degree is from the University of Oregon.

Email Author
Website: www.smartmediator.com

Additional articles by James Melamed

A National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation

- - - - - - -

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.

We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.

On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.

So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

President Obama’s Inaugural Address

Placing his hand on the Bible once used by Lincoln, Barack Obama took the Oath of Office at 12:05 p.m. on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Immediately following, he delivered his Inaugural Address to a sea of Americans stretching down the National Mall to the Lincoln Memorial and beyond. The full text of his address is below.

My fellow citizens

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].“

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Greetings, Friends,

The last day of voting for the Ideas for Change in America competition is TODAY, Thursday January 15th! On Friday we will present the top 10 ideas to the Obama administration at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We'll then connect the winning ideas to leading nonprofits and launch a series of national advocacy campaigns to turn each idea into federal policy.

I've voted for the following ideas:

• Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence (2nd Place)
• Free Single Payer Health Care (3rd Place)
• Make the grid green in 10 years (5th Place)
• Pass the DREAM Act - Support Higher Education for All Students (7th Place)
• Get FISA Right, repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties (9th Place)
• Develop & Implement a National Strategy for Sustainability (10th Place)
• Bridging the Empathy Gap - Yes We Can! (12th Place)
• Solve The Credit Crisis From The Bottom Up Through Social Lending (15th Place)
• Restore Investments In Rail Service And Infrastructure (29th Place)

I'm feeling excited about the potential that citizen input can have during this time of transition. Would you be willing to vote your passion and your compassion?

Warmly,

Jim

Our world is hungry for a compassionate style of leadership!

Greetings, Friends,

Happy New Year to you! May your coming year be abundantly full of the joy that comes from savoring many met needs!

2008 seems like my most challenging year ever. My heart broke as both my Mother and my Mother-in-law passed away and as Dad struggled with his grief over losing his partner of 60 + years. Additionally, the roles I had been playing within The Center for Nonviolent Communication changed dramatically. Jori and I also traveled extensively offering NVC in a variety of places, from Atlanta to Maui and Texas to Alberta. We also went through one of the most intense political seasons I have experienced. And the economy....

One thing that helped me to care for myself and to remember my own spiritual clarity during these transitions was my participation in our Compassionate Leadership community. I feel so grateful for the support, empathy and growth I receive there! Even as my mourning remains alive in me, I feel wide-open to abundant possibilities as I anticipate the coming months of 2009.

About a year ago, I wrote to many of you and asked you to consider joining us as Jori and I teamed with Rodger Sorrow and Kathi Aichner to offer a new 9-month NVC integration program. I felt full of anticipation and wonder, not knowing what would emerge. Now, I do not seem to be able to find the words to adequately express the connection and beauty I enjoyed in the community the 26 of us co-created.

Some of our participants have tried to put their experience to words, and their feedback is sprinkled throughout our website (http://compassionateleadershiptraining.com/), along with some brief videos. My hope is that hearing from them will inspire you to consider joining us for Compassionate Leadership 2009. We're expanding our offering this year to two 9-month retreats. We hope that by locating one retreat in the West (Albuquerque) and one in the East (Atlanta), we can contribute to accessibility and ease for more of you. Additionally, we have changed the format to 3 gatherings rather than 4 in order to support us all in preserving resources.

Speaking of resources, I know that some of you may be feeling anxious because of the transitions occurring in the global economy. You might be telling yourself that you cannot afford the luxury of an extended NVC training. You may be deeply connecting with your own needs for sustainability and protection.

We remain committed to making our program available regardless of any temporary lack of funds that may be present for you right now. I have a deep trust and faith in your ability to tap unbounded abundance through NVC consciousness. One of the most powerful components of our program is the Leadership Plan. This document, created by you with the support of the Trainers and other participants, can include strategies that can support you in contributing to the sustainability of our program and your own financial freedom. No matter what your current economic situation, we would like you to apply to participate in our program if you sense that joining with us would contribute to your well-being.

I'm guessing that many of you reading this are hungry to find ways to continue to integrate NVC into your life, and from that place of integration, find a meaningful and powerful way to contribute to creating the world you would like to live in while supporting your personal liberation and enhancing your relationships. I'd enjoy it immensely if you would join our Compassionate Leadership 2009 community in order to take your next step in generating that world!

Our Compassionate Leadership team and I would like to connect with you if you have any response to this letter, including specific questions about the program.

Warmly,

Jim Manske

PS If you are in our neck of the woods, we are offering a training on a donation basis next Sunday. For details, see:
http://radicalcompassion.squarespace.com/storage/ABQ%20NVC%20Jan%2009.pdf

Greetings, Friends,

I remain excited and curious to see what will unfold this year with Compassionate Leadership Training, offered in both Atlanta and Albuquerque. I feel excited anticipating the growth, learning, and community we will all co-create, and curious to see who will be inspired to join us and how what we do together will contribute to the world I'd like to live in, a world characterized by compassion, wisdom and nonviolent social transformation.

Below is a letter from one of my training partners, Kathi Aichner, inviting your consideration of our offering...

Warmly,

Jim

I’ve asked myself over and over the last few days, “What could I possibly say to the readers of this email which might inspire them to take a look at Compassionate Leadership?” I’ve pondered this question, realizing I want to be effective as well as contribute to the well being of others.

I want to contribute to some clarity around this program too. This program is not only for those wanting to offer NVC to others via workshops and trainings. This program certainly supports those desiring to enhance their presenting skills, yet it also embraces those seeking personal growth and self-empowerment.

As one of the facilitators of this program, I was blown away by the response to the program from those who attended this year, 2008. The phrase “life-changing” was used often in the feedback we received. You can see what 2008 participants had to say on our website, http://www.compassionateleadershiptraining.com/. I totally believed we, the four of us, Jim and Jori Manske, Rodger Sorrow and me, had an inspiring concept for a program. My need for trust was met in abundance by the response of all who attended.

To hear brief videos from 2008 Participants click in the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/EnfinityMedia/

If you have attended an IIT or other trainings, you may remember the sense of community from that experience. Would you like to connect to that again on a long-term basis? Take a look at Compassionate Leadership, http://www.compassionateleadershiptraining.com/. The 2008 program ended over two months ago yet numerous ‘08 participants continue to connect by teleconference call and they are in the process of planning a reunion. I encourage you to click on the link "What others are saying" on the website if you want some inspiration and more clarity around this program.

Do you find you would like to attend yet tell yourself, “There’s no way, I can’t afford it?” Sounds like there may be a need for some empathy here. I encourage you to give one of us a call.

Jori Manske – Trainer, Phone +1.505.344.1 305; Email: jori@cnvc.org
Jim Manske – Trainer, Phone +1.505.344.1305; Email: nvctrainer@gmail.com
Kathi Aichner – Trainer, Phone +1.805.434.1704; Email: irishlassi@aol.com
Rodger Sorrow – Trainer, Phone +1.805.687.6961; Email: rodgersorrow@verizon.net
Anne Walton - Organizer for '09 West, Phone +1.805.687-6961; Email: annewalton@verizon.net
Sherri Boles-Rogers - Organizer for '09 East, Phone +1.678.362.3889 (Cell); Email: sherri@ganvc.org

Blessings in Love and Light, Kathi Aichner

Dear Ones in Our Networks,

We are requesting support for a proposal to begin a movement to increase the empathic ability of those who serve in our government. Literally 4 minutes of your time with only 5 steps to bring an idea before the Obama team that could effect the kind of change we are all hoping to see!

President Elect Barack Obama said, "I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again." Change.org has created a forum that will submit the top ten voted for proposals to the Obama team for review. Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven effort to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama
Administration and Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies.

We have posted a proposal named "Bridging the Empathy Gap - Yes We Can" designed to make empathy central to government functioning, tying it to Obama's repeated highlighting of empathy as a crucially needed quality. The proposal is appended at the end of this message for your review.

To make it to the 2nd round of voting on this site, we probably need to have at least 1200 votes for this idea in the coming week. If you are moved to have NVC brought to the attention of the administration, please take the steps below as soon as possible. Ideas that get a lot of votes quickly are posted as "ideas on the rise" and then have more of a chance of getting more
votes.

1. Click on:
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/bridging_the_empathy_gap_-_yes_we_can
(or go to http://www.change.org/ideas and search for this proposal or for "empathy" if the link doesn't work)

2. Click on Vote! .that will give you a window to create an account tovote.asking for name, email, and a password. (Upper left corner of page)

3. Fill in window to create your account.

4. Return to your email to complete registration by clicking on the
link provided in the email from change.org

5. Click on Vote again and you are complete! The "Vote" button will
have changed from blue to red and the text will say "Voted"." It will only
let you vote once for each item.

Once you have an account you can invite friends and ask them to vote as well. The site provides information on how to do that, or you can forward this.

Our hope/goal/intention is to create an overwhelming response to our proposal so it can get the attention it needs to be brought to fruition.

Thank you for giving your time in this way.

If you have specific ideas you would like to discuss, we have set up a google group that you can
join if you want http://groups.google.com/group/bridging-the-empathy-gap.

In connection for building a world of peace and understanding,

Catherine Cadden, Jori Manske, Kathleen McFerran, Miki Kashtan, Sylvia
Haskvitz

HERE'S THE PROPOSAL:

Bridging the Empathy Gap - Yes we can!

President-Elect Barack Obama has spoken repeatedly about empathy, which he defines as "the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us." In his words, "And that strikes me as the most important quality that we need in America right now and around the world right now." Empathy is a value we can cultivate in our
government now.

We propose to create an inter-departmental office of empathy (or a divisionwithin a Department of Peace if one is established) that can support the closing of the empathy deficit by employing strategies such as the following:

1. Implementing specific processes and methods for making empathy central to government operations both within government and in every sector of society to support meaningful use of our resources.

2. Identifying specific offices, agencies, and individuals within government that would benefit from intensive training in empathy skills.

3. Utilizing advanced empathic facilitation as a foundation for decision-making to support efficient and productive processes in all branches of goverment.

4. Assessing the impact of government policies and decisions on the overall purpose of bridging the empathy gap.

5. Creating public forums for dialogue to create empathic connection between people across differences - political, religious, ideological, racial, class, etc. The purpose of such forums would be bridging divides in our nation.

6. Creating and proposing curriculum based on Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org) to all schools for teaching empathy skills.

7. Creating an Empathy Corps - volunteers trained in empathy skills to go into conflict zones domestically and internationally to support diffusion of conflict through empathic connection.

"Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world."
- President-Elect Barack Obama

The Choice Is Ours Now

By Melissa Etheridge - The Huffington Post, Dec. 22, 2008

This is a message for my brothers and sisters who have fought so long and so hard for gay rights and liberty. We have spent a long time climbing up this mountain, looking at the impossible, changing a thousand year-old paradigm. We have asked for the right to love the human of our choice, and to be protected equally under the laws of this great country. The road at times has been so bloody, and so horrible, and so disheartening. From being blamed for 9/11 and Katrina, to hateful crimes committed against us, we are battle weary. We watched as our nation took a step in the right direction, against all odds and elected Barack Obama as our next leader. Then we were jerked back into the last century as we watched our rights taken away by prop 8 in California. Still sore and angry we felt another slap in the face as the man we helped get elected seemingly invited a gay-hater to address the world at his inauguration.

I hadn't heard of Pastor Rick Warren before all of this. When I heard the news, in its neat little sound bite form that we are so accustomed to, it painted the picture for me. This Pastor Rick must surely be one hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist like all the others. He probably has his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know. One more hater working up his congregation to hate the gays, comparing us to pedophiles and those who commit incest, blah blah blah. Same 'ole thing. Would I be boycotting the inauguration? Would we be marching again?

Well, I have to tell you my friends, the universe has a sense of humor and indeed works in mysterious ways. As I was winding down the promotion for my Christmas album I had one more stop last night. I'd agreed to play a song I'd written with my friend Salman Ahmed, a Sufi Muslim from Pakistan. The song is called "Ring The Bells," and it's a call for peace and unity in our world. We were going to perform our song for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group of Muslim Americans that tries to raise awareness in this country, and the world, about the majority of good, loving, Muslims. I was honored, considering some in the Muslim religion consider singing to be against God, while other Muslim countries have harsh penalties, even death for homosexuals. I felt it was a very brave gesture for them to make. I received a call the day before to inform me of the keynote speaker that night... Pastor Rick Warren. I was stunned. My fight or flight instinct took over, should I cancel? Then a calm voice inside me said, "Are you really about peace or not?"

I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.

When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.

Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.

I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.

I will be attending the inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart. I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

Happy Holidays my friends and a Happy New Year to you.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men and women... and everyone in-between.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-etheridge/the-choice-is-ours-now_b_152947.html

Greetings, Friends,

Today I received this inspiring email from Lorna Ritchie in Berlin...

Dear NVC friends,

Today I really do have something to celebrate and share!!

We had a premiere-event in Berlin yesterday - the very first local, regional NVC-Day in Germany (or even worldwide?) in which we presented the Practice of NVC in 18 different fields of work and everyday life.

(This included nvc in corporations, nvc in family, nvc in therapy, nvc and social change, nvc and yoga, nvc with children, nvc in Kindergarten - the project "The Giraffe dream", nvc in schools, nvc in mediation, nvc in social work, nvc and self-empathy, nvc and the media).

The participants came from all different fields, some NVC-beginners, some advanced, many experts in their field of work.

Not only was the preparation phase a process of living empathy, care and fun - those who were offering workshops also enjoyed a team of supporters, who helped with the organisation of everything in the days before the event (everything means helping organising catering, decoration, all the registration documents and even cleaning facilities before and after use). The organisation surrounding the event took place with enormous ease and precision.

The Feedback has been just overwhelming - we heard so much enthusiasm from people, words like "inspiring, grateful, fulfilled, excited, moved, informative" and very often there was a request for more, more, more...

Participants came not just from Berlin but from places as far away as Hamburg (about 3 hours drive). Some of them were also very motivated to start up a regional support group near their homes and we were able to offer them support from the DACH for that.

What I celebrate most was the connection within the Berlin-NVC-Circle and all involved in the event - I was very aware of the support and appreciation for each other and this was also very visible for all our "guests/participants". This is what makes my heart sing today as it so much meets my need for an awareness of credibility within the NVC-community. We really can walk the talk!! This is my very personal and subjective report of yesterdays events and i do hope you enjoy this positive piece of news in a world full of news of strife and pain.

Sending heartfelt greetings to all of you all over the world.

Lorna Ritchie in Berlin, Germany.

p.s please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would enjoy reading it.

Greetings, Friends,

Its great to be home in Albuquerque! We've been busy planning some events and activities to share NVC here, as well as Orange County, CA, Durango, CO, and Atlanta.

I stumbled across this inspiring article today from Dallas about peer mediation. I hope you are inspired as well.

Warmly,

Jim

Nellsyn Elizabeth Hill of Lewisville: Resolving conflict

06:13 AM CDT on Thursday, September 18, 2008

Just before school let out in June, I was selected by the teachers and administrators at my high school to be one of the 20 participants in a summer workshop for Peer Mediation, a program dedicated to nonviolent conflict resolution. I had no idea what an important message this program had to offer not only to students, but also to teachers and families in our area.

Something we must all recognize first is that life is constantly changing. But with change comes conflict. A change in activities can lead to time-management conflicts. A change in location can lead to communication conflicts. A change in values can lead to relationship conflicts.

We cannot avoid change – or conflict.

However, Peer Mediation (or Mustang Mediation, M&Ms, at my high school) is the difference between poisonous, corrosive grudges that may breed from conflict, and healthy, productive peacemaking. It is based on the idea that "what we do not talk out, we act out." The focus is to have students help other students work out their dilemmas in a stress-free and completely confidential environment before problems become uncontrollable or hostile.

It starts by encouraging friends involved in conflict to turn in a form requesting mediation. Then they meet with two peer mediators during school to form some sort of agreement.

I believe this group is so important and beneficial because it can be applied to all areas of life: school, home, work, etc. Buddha said, "Mediation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back and choose the path that leads to wisdom."

Through mediation, we are able to grow as a group and as individuals by opening our minds and learning the truth about our peers' feelings and how others respond to their environment. Proverbs 18:2 says, "A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions."

Another thing that Peer Mediation requires besides patience and willingness to listen is some shape of compromise. Let's face it, you can talk to someone who has hurt you about a problem you have and how you feel about it until you're blue in the face and never reach a resolution.

Lynn Johnston, author of the comic strip "For Better or For Worse," once said, "An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything." And the resolutions the disputants develop in Peer Mediation can be as simple as an apology and clearing up all misconceptions – or as serious as promising to restore lost or damaged valuables.

My hope – the hope of my fellow M&Ms and our sponsors – is to raise awareness about this type of on-campus problem-solving and to promote its growth in surrounding school districts. We are working to create a safer, more comfortable learning environment to help stop the fights and hurt feelings that cloud people's perception of high school.

And by spreading this program to other high schools and even middle schools, we can grow more patient, perceptive and emotionally stable members of society.

Nellsyn Elizabeth Hill of Lewisville is a senior at Carrollton Creekview High School and a Student Voices volunteer columnist. To respond to this column, send an e-mail to voices@dallasnews.com.

Greetings, friends,

I've been busy focusing on fun and connection in Maui with a parade of friends and family. Now we are in our waning days, returning to Albuquerque on Tuesday.

I received this from a colleague today and publish it here to inspire you about what is possible to create in the equation, nonviolence + creativity = ?

Peace,

Jim

Dear Friends,

Sending you all my best thoughts from Palestine. I wanted to let you all know that Gunnar and I just spent 2 weeks visiting our dear friend Nafez in Hebron. We had decided, after our NVC Special Session training in February, to come here this summer and document Library On Wheels for Nonviolence and Peace, an organization that Nafez founded in 1986.
It has been a wonderful and moving experience to be here, to visit with Nafez and his beautiful family, to learn about Hebron and its' two cities, to observe and film the work of the LOWNP, its' staff and volunteers, to follow the children's summer program and to partake in different campaigns the organization is promoting:

-a "Chess campaign" in refugee camps and villages to raise awareness about the violence used by families and clans in sorting out their differences and to teach people alternative strategies as in a chess game.

-an "Eat and Drink Locally" campaign to raise the awareness of how Palestinians are fueling the economy of their occupier when they buy Israeli products rather than supporting the Palestinian economy .

- a "Reading at the Checkpoints" campaign to support regular people who are trying to get to their destinations and are often being stopped, searched and humiliated at the checkpoints. Books on topics such as nonviolence, science, history, religion, etc are provided by the taxi companies (courtesy of LOWNP) to travelers to empower them to use this time for their benefit and general culture, to help them cope with their own feelings of anger and violence towards their occupiers (soldiers and settlers at checkpoints).

My understanding of LOWNP's strategies is to inspire people here living in extremely violent conditions at times to empower themselves and to take control of their lives in nonviolent ways (these campaigns are seeds sown), to train young adults to be nonviolent leaders in their communities and to inspire, educate and train children about nonviolence and peace and how to be active members of their family and school environments.

I am very moved and inspired by the children, their interest and committment to understanding and learning nonviolence, by their sense of integrity and their desire to communicate with us and I loved the way they let us enter into their daily worlds.

I am now spending 1 month in Bethlehem teaching students English and studying Arabic myself. My approach to teaching English has been to focus on what communication is and to also share some of what I have learned in my NVC trainings and readings. Great fun!
After this I will return to Switzerland with all the footage taken in Hebron and create a short film, in sh'allah, as they say here.

Best regards,

Jacqueline

Greetings, Friends,

I enjoyed the reminders provided by the following quote from Carl Rogers. As you may know, Marshall Rosenberg studied with Carl at the University of Wisconsin when he was working on his Ph.D. Rogerian ideas seem to me to be foundational to NVC.

I found this today on the the NVC Education Group, courtesy of (I)An-ok:


The Fundamentals of a Center for Person-Centered Learning

(taken from the article Beyond the Watershed: And Where Now? By Carl
Rogers from the book A Way of Being)

1. Precondition. The leaders, or persons who are perceived as
authority figures in the situation, are sufficiently secure within
themselves and in their relationship to others that they experience an
essential trust in the capacity of others to think for themselves, to
learn for themselves. If this precondition exists, then the following
aspects become possible and tend to be implemented.

2. The facilitative persons share with the others – students, and
possibly also parents or community members – the responsibility for
the learning process. Curricular planning, the mode of administration,
the funding, and the policy-making are all the responsibility of the
particular group involved.

3. The facilitators provide learning resources – from within
themselves and their own experience, from books or other materials, or
from community experiences. The learners are encouraged to add
resources of which they have knowledge or in which they have
experience. The facilitators open doors to resources outside the
experience of the group.

4. The students develop their own programs of learning, individually
or in cooperation with others. Exploring their own interests, facing
this wealth of resources, they each make choices as to their own
learning directions, and they carry the responsibility for the
consequences of those choices.

5. A facilitative learning climate is provided. In meetings of the
class or of the school as a whole, an atmosphere of realness, of
caring, and of understanding listening is evident. This climate may
spring initially from the person who is the perceived leader. As the
learning process continues, it is more and more often provided by the
learners for one another. Learning from one another becomes as
important as learning from books or films or community experiences.

6. The focus of the learning center is primarily on fostering the
continuing process of learning. The content of the learning, while
significant, falls into a secondary place. Thus, a course is
successfully ended not when the students have "learned all they need
to know," but when they have made significant progress in learning how
to learn what they want to know.

7. The discipline necessary to reach the students' goals is a
self-discipline, and is recognized and accepted by the learners as
being their individual responsibilities. Self-discipline replaces
external discipline.

8. The evaluation of the extent and significance of each student's
learning is made primarily by the learner himself or herself, although
the self-evaluations may be influenced and enriched by caring feedback
from other members of the group and from the facilitator.

9. In this growth-promoting climate, the learning tends to be deeper,
proceeds at a more rapid rate, and is more pervasive in the life and
behavior of the students than learning acquired in the traditional
classroom. This comes about because the directions is self-chosen, the
learning is self-initiated, and whole persons, with feelings and
passions as well as the intellect, are invested in the process.

Greetings, Friends,

Later this fall, Jori and I will be offering an NVC mediation course on NVC Academy. Full details @
http://nvctraining.com/courses/telecourses/JJM/mediation.html

Since the class is limited to 24 folks, I urge you to sign up right away!

Here's a teaser:

"The Heart of Conflict:
Integrating NVC and Mediation"
A Telephone (Telecourse) Program with CNVC Certified Trainers Jori Manske and Jim Manske from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Dates: 6 consecutive Tuesdays from 4:00 - 6:00 PM PDT/PST beginning October 14, 2008

Join Certified Mediators and Facilitators Jori and Jim Manske in an exploration of using Nonviolent Communication in the context of Mediation and Conflict Resolution. Opportunities for practice will be woven with lessons covering the essential elements needed in order to begin to use the NVC process during conflict situations. There will be extensive coaching and feedback offered. To maximize practice opportunities, each trainer will facilitate a smaller group during portions of the program and the class size will be limited to 24 participants.

Full details @
http://nvctraining.com/courses/telecourses/JJM/mediation.html

I encourage you to join the NVC Academy!

http://nvcacademy.com/17

For a complete flyer on NVC Academy in Adobe Acrobat, click here

Reflection after a day of Facebook

This “social networking” is all new to me. I decided to try it because I'm "testing" a new browser called Flock that is a "social browser".

So far, I feel amazed at how much this is contributing to my needs for fun and connection. I've reached out to others and since joining yesterday, have managed to grow my friends list to almost 30, including a new NVC friend in Pakistan.

With Flock, you have the option of having a sidebar with all of your friends listed, including their photos. I have a sense of support and community having everyone "there" with me.

This is a lot more fun than high school! I remember so vividly the pain of comparing my “friend's list” with "popular" kids. Ouch. Now, I sense no desire to compare...instead a simple enjoyment of so many needs met with each of you in our shared history, and the ever-deepening inclination to continue these connections.

I wonder how this all lands with you?

Peace,

Jim

Greetings, Friends,

I'm in beautiful Huelo, Hawaii, house-sitting for fellow CNVC trainer Christa Morf.

Compared to Albuquerque, it rains a lot here! Compared to most places on the planet, it rains a lot here! I'm guessing in the week we've been here, we have received at least 7 inches of rain.

It tends to come in short, heavy bursts. Then the sun comes out again. The flowers, trees, and shrubs love it! So do the mosquitoes.

I've decided to re-activate this blog since I'm trying out a new browser called Flock. Flock is alleged to be the latest, greatest because it is a "social browser", integrating blogs, facebook, picassa, etc.

So, I'm gonna try it out.

More later!

Aloha,

Jim

Greetings, friends,

When I realize its been a month since my last post, I feel a sense of amazement, wondering, where does the time go?

I can answer that it proceeds one moment at a time. And my moments have been remarkably full.

After a Thanksgiving trip to Jacksonville to visit family, I took a sudden detour to Atlanta to support my parents during a health crisis. I ended up spending about a month there. I feel happy to report that the crisis has passed and that everyone is enjoying some well-being right now.

Just before Christmas, I returned to Albuquerque to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. I also worked there to prepare for Marshall Rosenberg's first Special Session in the United States. From January 9th through the 23rd, 33 people from 8 countries, 15 states and 3 Canadian provinces gathered at the Spiritual Renewal Center in Albuquerque to explore Social Change using Nonviolent Communication. I feel especially gratified about the work done to prepare for a project in the African country of Burundi.

We returned to LA in late January so that Jori could attend to her work at CNVC. In the background, I began preparing for our next Albuquerque training event, an International Intensive Training that begins on February 14. We also took a weekend trip last Friday to Oklahoma City where we were delighted to help a community of new NVC practitioners begin to integrate Nonviolent Communication. We greeted about sixty folks for a free Friday evening introduction and spent the rest of the weekend with about 40 people immersed in learning NVC. Remembering our time there now, I feel warm and hopeful about how the community there lived the process of NVC with us.

Now we are back in LA for a couple of more days before heading back to Albuquerque for the rest of the month. After the IIT there, the Leadership Team of CNVC will gather to consider strategies to continue the work of the Center for Nonviolent Communication.

In March, we are looking forward to training events in the LA area and in Salt Lake City.

Finally, I wanted you to be aware of this article about NVC from Columbia, Missiouri. It features an interview with NVC trainer Miki Kashtan: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Feb/20070202Feat003.asp

I recently stumbled upon this gem...

Empathy

Empathy, a value upon which is based all the educational methods on peace and non-violence is the key to comprehending what others experience. According to the Chinese philosopher Tchouang-Tseu, real empathy exists when one listens with one’s entire being. “To listen through hearing is one thing. To listen intellectually is another. But to listen with the mind is not limited to the sole faculties of hearing or intellectual comprehension. It requires a state of vacuity of all faculties. When this state is reached, the entire being can then listen attentively. One then succeeds to grasp directly what is essential to us, that which can never be heard with the ear or understood by the mind.”

From: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=4617&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html