September 11 reminder and see 2 minutes of restorative action.

I follow Tony Robbins on Twitter.
This morning he posted a link to a two minute video.   The taping occured on September 11, Tony’s training went on to address underlying harms and different points of view.
The video is powerful, and I’m really glad to have the time to be able to watch the entire thing.
I really [...]

Learning how to be a blogger, an executive director and a community member.

Life is about balance, learning and growing along the way, continuously making improvements as a person.
I need to share a few things today.
I removed a post where I offered my views and opinions on drug court.  I removed it because there is more to the story.  I did not mean to diminish, insult, offend or [...]

Antenna’s are a good thing! Dealing with interpersonal conflict.

An antenna is a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic waves.  (so says Wikipedia).
I’m talking about social and emotional antenna’s.  But think transducer is a great comparision.  Electromagnetic waves are invisible and so are emotions.  Social climate is invisible and really impacts the attract/repulse mode in people – just like two magnetic poles, attracting [...]

Think of Circles as a ‘magic container’, transforming the contents and the people contributing.

A diverse group of people recently gathered for Circle training.  We had college and elementary teachers/professors, campus & restorative justice program staff.  It was a very fulfilling training, lots of enthusiasm was generated and lots of ideas came forward for Circle application.  I love that part of it.  I warn people when I am training [...]

The RJ “legacy” you’d like to leave behind – excellent question

A restorative justice researcher intereviewed me, and her final question was asking me, what Restorative Justice “legacy” I would like to leave. 
(side note I started the blog entry in January – got that first sentance and saved if for later)   Now I can’t remember my answer and wow – I am guessing it changed!
Life has [...]

The influence of focusing on Values . . . in Circle.

I was blessed again this week.  I had some wonderful Circle experiences.  The story I would like to share happened at 1/2 way house.
The house serves men in recovery and returning to the community from prison.  Most of them I guess have been to prison, the one man that is still in high school, I [...]

Be a “Circle Star” . . . like super star, rock star, shining star!

I log on to wordpress today and a banner ad . . . make circlestarspace your own domain today, $15 a year. 
WordPress invented a new concept for me!  Circle-Star!  I had planned to log on and do a blog post about getting to be my best self today.  I got to do a Circle keeper training [...]

Living the single life . . . or am I?

So to say you are “living” something . . . to me, means fully embraced and alive with it. 
Recently watching an independent film, I remember this spoken by the main character . . .
Love is like a mine field.  You take one step and can get blown to pieces.  Yet, you put your pieces back together [...]

Remembering there are many ‘right’ answers . . .

I keep a pile of books by my bed, the ones I want to read.  The ones I’ve started and wanted to finish.  What amazes me is that whenever I go back to a ’spiritually’ based book.  I read exactly what I needed!  It’s really odd, like if I had kept reading, I wouldn’t have [...]

Learn to cultivate ‘belonging’ in yourself and others

Often times, my Circle opening explanation includes something about ‘perspective’.  I point out that we can all see the items in the Center, we just see them from a different ‘perspective’ and we all get our own ‘perspective’.

I think the way we “think” about things, the “perspecitve” we take can have a powerful influence on [...]