Next First Friday

Cultivating non-violence in speech and action

Living Earth is committed to transforming underlying patterns of violence, division, and destruction within our culture—patterns reflected throughout American society and in our individual lives and consciousness.

The divisions manifest in many ways: even our our communication with friends and loved ones often inadvertently fuels these separations. Instead of increasing understanding and facilitating wholeness, our discussions and dialogues frequently result in increased division, frustration, and resistance rather than appreciation, understanding, and connection.

Our basic humanity gets quickly muddied when dialogue yields hurt and disagreement. Effective, mutually receptive communication is crucial in our personal relationships, our communities, and throughout our society. Shifting our culturally-conditioned practices and patterns is key to this change.

Some of the “new” patterns presented in Non-violent Communication (NVC) are ancient, others are combined in fresh ways appropriate to contemporary culture. According to the Center for Non-violent Communication website www.cnvc.org, “All that has been integrated into NVC has been known for centuries. The intent is to remind us about what we already know … and to assist us in living in a way that concretely manifests this knowledge.”

A trained NVC facilitator, Lashelle Charde, will introduce us to fresh ways of communicating. Her goal is to encourage skills that enable us to “talk so people will listen, and listen so people will talk.” After dinner we’ll have the opportunity to learn simple processes, and “practice” interactive skills that demonstrate the potential we each have for reshaping how we interact and participate in the world.

First Friday

First Friday is a time to meet good people, share good food, exchange ideas and information, and connect with community. Bring a vegetarian or vegan dish to share if you can, and jump in to the conversation. The food is always great, the conversation lively, the topic discussions thoughtful and everyone is welcome. There is no charge, but small donations make First Fridays possible.