Relational Spaces

https://streamyard.com/watch/J8um8Q38Hrr4?utm_source=English+speaking&utm_campaign=7a4981110e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_08_14_04_21_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-a0e48fb299-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Standing Together is a joint initiative to work for peace and equality for all Jews and Palestinians in Israeli society. Here is a link to a webinar held yesterday

Where do we go from here? Come and meet Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel who are working on the ground to build an alternative of peace, equality, and justice in Israeli society.

This was sent by our friend Jon Blend

The quotation is by Sikh activist, Valerie Kaur:

"Our most powerful response to the horror in Israel and Palestine is to refuse to surrender our humanity.

You will be told by some: The deaths of Israeli children are unfortunate but inevitable, because Israel’s occupation of Palestine is brutal and wrong.

You will be told by others: The deaths of Palestinian children are unfortunate but inevitable, because it is the only way to keep Israel safe from terror, and Hamas brought this on its own people.

Both will say: Our aggression is the only response to their aggression, our fear more justified than their fear, our grief more devastating than theirs ever will be.

But oh my love, the hierarchy of pain is the old way. The moment we allow our hearts to go numb is the moment we shut down our humanity.

I don’t know the solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, but I do know the starting point: To grieve “their” children as our children. It’s the only way to break the cycle.

To my loved ones who are Israeli, Jewish, and Palestinian: I see your searing pain. I love you and grieve with you and am reciting my ancestors’ prayers for protection as you search for your families and bear the unbearable. May love find you through the impossible.

To all of us witnessing this story: What does love want you to do?
If you cannot look at the news and the images: It’s okay. Step away, be with the earth, go to the trees, let them breathe through you; remember that you don’t need to do all the things, just the one that’s yours to do.

If you want to help but don’t know how: Begin in relationship. Who in your life is hurting from this? Offer to walk with them, listen to them. There is no fixing grief, only bearing it together. Only then do we know what to do next.

If you are falling apart: Your breathlessness is not a sign of your weakness, but of your strength. Of how deeply you feel the horror, how deeply you care. You still feel. And that matters in a world that wants us to feel nothing. Who can feel it with you? breathe with you?

Opening our hearts to grief— others and our own— is how we hold our humanity in a world that would destroy it. It’s how we will begin to survive this."

In our local area, there is a new exhibition for Black History Month.

Exhibition in Tottenham explores role of Black soldiers in First World War Event taking place at The Trampery as part of Black History Month

https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/post/therapist-your-pain-matters-too

Therapist, Your Pain Matters Too | Psychotherapy Networker When mental health professionals compare their problems to that of their clients, they risk falling into the trappings of comparative suffering and missing the signs of secondary trauma and burnout.

Sounds all too familiar, this need to be perfect or to produce perfection. Michael Meade explores...

Living Myth Episode #339 with Michael Meade This episode of Living Myth deals with perfectionism and the inner dynamics of gifts and wounds in the human soul. Some people were told as children that they had to be perfect; others were told they were somehow defective and could never be perfect. Either way can cause a kind of spell and a life-l...

I am beyond angry at this awful awful government

So, George Osborne, austerity was essential? Tell that to the millions still suffering its terrible effects | Polly Toynbee The former chancellor’s ‘heartfelt sympathy’ for bereaved people at the Covid inquiry rang entirely false, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

https://rooms.relationalspaces.co.uk/pluralogue-36-improv-with-darren-cheek/
The Pluralogues are back after a long absence!
IMPROV with Darren Cheek. This Sunday 14th May 2.30 - 5 pm, 92-94 Tooley Street, SE1 2TH.
Email: [email protected] to book.

Relationships are a rollercoaster ride: here’s how to take the ups with the downs Two married therapists reveals 10 ways to improve the many highs and lows of your love life

I know so many more women who are making the world a better place, but this will do for a start.

International Women’s Day: 15 women making the world better To mark International Women’s Day, Positive News celebrates some of the brilliant female pioneers driving change and making the world better

Women Defenders face unique and significant threats of violence, but they continue to protect land, water, and life in the Amazon Basin.

Women Defenders for Territories Free of Mining! | Amazon Watch Across the Amazon Basin, women are organizing in defense of life, rights, and territories, and are a critical part of the front lines resisting increasing threats such as mining.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/23/jason-arday-to-become-youngest-ever-black-professor-at-cambridge

Diagnosed with global developmental delay and autism spectrum disorder as a young child, Jason Arday is now the youngest ever black professor ever appointed at University of Cambridge. When studying for his PhD he wrote on his bedroom wall "One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge." He knew how badly he wanted it and knew how hard he wanted to work to achieve this.

Jason Arday to become youngest ever black professor at Cambridge University Arday, 37, a sociologist, aims to inspire others from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds

Quote from Neel Burton