by Miki Kashtan

(Below is an excerpt of the article that you can find on Medium)

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Most people who will read this likely share with me a deep sense in their heart that what we see around us is not the only option available to humans. Some of us may have held on to the seed of trust in self, others, and life their whole lives despite what happens in our families, schools, workplaces, and whole societies around the planet. Others of us may have lost it for a while, and are now again able to see what human life could be like. However we got there, our hearts likely long for a way of living in which we are empowered beings engaging collaboratively within interdependent webs of relationships in which most of what we do together happens in a flow of trust and where we can live in line with our values.

From within this longing and trust in possibility, many of us have had the wrenching experience of embarking on a journey with others only to crash into conflict, mistrust, splintering, or finding ourselves, yet again, in power-over structures that are at odds with what we set out to do.

The bulk of the experimentation that I have initiated and been part of within the Nonviolent Global Liberation (NGL) community that I gave birth to in 2017 is dedicated to understanding and finding pathways to transform the factors that contribute to this phenomenon. This experimentation follows years of working with many other groups. In this article, I share a condensed version of what I and we have learned about the why of these repeated challenges. My biggest hope is that what follows will give readers both compassionate understanding and some specific practical steps that I believe people and communities can potentially take now, before waiting for humanity as a whole to realign with life’s principles.

Full article to be read on Medium

PHOTO CREDIT

 Unity, by Pietro Soldi, on Pinterest

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