Jan 2, 2015 ─ What are my priorities? Under that I wrote a few words: "Words didn't work." Then I picked up my pen and colored pencils as I contemplated the rectangular page. It felt right to draw a symbol of the sun at the bottom. Then appeared a woman's head above the sun and from her head streamed upward the roots of a tree yet leaving space for more growth. The tree began to appear all around her as well as rooting itself in the sun. A red heart appeared in the tree between the sun and the woman. Rather large stars appeared on each side of the sun. From one vines spiraled and from the other flowers flowed. Several colorful planets formed in the spaces to the side. I looked at the clock. It was 3:am. It was color that revealed to me that my task was pretty much the same as other years: to work for peace and to expand. [emphasis added]
Out of gathered Silence at the first Quaker Meeting of 2015 in Great Barrington, MA, June Wink rose with a message about priorities and a deeper side to the resolutions of a new year. Her voice plainly and clearly opened the silence, to say Upon going to bed on Jan 2, I began to write in my journal. I wrote: Jan 2, 2015 ─ What are my priorities? Under that I wrote a few words: "Words didn't work." Then I picked up my pen and colored pencils as I contemplated the rectangular page. It felt right to draw a symbol of the sun at the bottom. Then appeared a woman's head above the sun and from her head streamed upward the roots of a tree yet leaving space for more growth. The tree began to appear all around her as well as rooting itself in the sun. A red heart appeared in the tree between the sun and the woman. Rather large stars appeared on each side of the sun. From one vines spiraled and from the other flowers flowed. Several colorful planets formed in the spaces to the side. I looked at the clock. It was 3:am. It was color that revealed to me that my task was pretty much the same as other years: to work for peace and to expand. [emphasis added] Following are a comment and pictures of June Wink with a Friend at the Quaker Meeting
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Teachers, Counselors, Administrative Staff, Principals, and Superintendent
of Franklin Central School District, NY all attended an."Introductory Workshop" coordinated by Noelle Granger (Special Education teacher) and two co-coordinators along with eight Alternatives to Violence Project Facilitators on Friday, 24 October 2014. This upstate New York school district already had experience with AVP Basic Workshops for students under the leadership of Noelle Granger, an AVP Facilitator She began AVP as a high school student in nearby Warren, NY (under Free Flo" McNeill). Noelle coordinated this workshop with the help of "Spunky Stephanie" Swantak and Elbieta Putrycz, another AVP Facilitator and Franklin resident Noelle and Elzbieta also facilitated a two Community Issues exercises as a "Where Do We Go From Here?" at the end of this introductory workshop. MT ELGON’S SABAOT LAND DEFENCE FORCE TRAINING REPORT By Getry Agizah, Coordinator, Friends Church Peace Teams So far, as we ended this project, nine guns were surrendered and we hope more will be handed in. BACKGROUND OF THE REGION Mt. Elgon is in the western part of Kenya and it is known by its favorable weather conditions which are ever green. It has all varieties and species of trees including bamboo which is normally eaten by the residents at the shooting stage and later used in building houses and making of baskets. The region is leading the western region in food production. Inhabitants of the region are Sabaots, who are the majority, the Bukusu and Dorobo/Okiek who are a clan of Sabaots that live in the forest just below the top of the mountain. There is only hardship there.
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
Report from Kenya #302 – October 17, 2014 David Zarembka In my post of October 3, I made the following comment:
[by Bill Leicht] AVP folks work with emotions to facilitate paths to effective nonviolence, but "2. Emotions and perception are physical actions done in the body,." Paul Linden, PhD [page 2 of link]. If this is true, then the more we perceive and understand the body, the more we can perceive and understand emotions. That's why I attended "Working with the Body for Coaches and Trainers" in New York City last weekend, 26-28 September. The two trainers, the participants, the experience were all wonderful; equally important, they transformed a way I handle conflict in my own body.
FRIENDS, From Mt Elgon, Kenya comes a woman’s deeply moving story of peace-making in a setting of imminent danger that men had shunned. It invites us, who are dedicated to peacemaking, to reconsider our own assumptions about the role of faith in creating the conditions to transform the fear of violence into peace-seeking. As Getry Agizah says, “The Mt Elgon community needs us to walk with them.” [emphasis added]
RAILROAD STREET YOUTH PROJECT has just begun recruiting for the following three full time positions. Please refer to their website for details.
Railroad Street Youth Project graduated ten people from the all-weekend Alternatives to Violence Project "Basic Workshop." This is a first step towards creating a cadre of youth AVP Facilitators to help reduce violence and abuse in our Tricorner area.
Along with several RSYP folks, we had Generous John from Southern Berkshires Friends, Spunky Sam from Wild Will's future Social Justice MA program at UMass-Amherst, and three folks from Hudson, NY (SBK Social Justice Center and Kite's Nest, where LJ leads a Social Justice Academy this summer), Nifty Natalie, Superior Shah and Musical Michael. For us to fill another Basic and move on to an Advanced Workshop in September and your Training of Facilitators before 2015, please:
The Minnesota AVP Anger Study was the lead article in the Intl. J. of Trauma Research and Practice (first edition) this month. It is both a qualitative (anecdotal) report and a quantitative study using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). The latter "is a 57-item inventory which measures the following: (a) the intensity of anger as an emotional state (State An-ger); (b) the disposition to experience angry feelings as a personality trait (Trait Anger); (c) the frequency with which angry feelings are expressed inwardly and outwardly (Anger Expression); and (d) the frequency with which anger is controlled inwardly and outwardly (Anger Control)." There are some problems with the article, but probably the evidence of AVP's validity and effectiveness will hold up with further, larger studies that are likely to follow. This is ground-breaking, important work!
SS writes, "HI Bill, I attended last weekend's facilitator workshop led by Fred Feucht. It got me very excited to start apprenticing. I am also working with the Bedford Hills Outside Coordinator to start the approval process to work in the prisons...."
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