“May we have the courage to be real—bare seams, imperfections, tears, warts and all. May this be the place where we love one another into all of our realness, all of our humanity.” -Teri Schwartz
How do you find the courage to be real?
The Beauty of Repair
Our spoken and unspoken agreements are the elements that forge lasting, loving relationships, or can be the reason why they fall apart. I have found that in my strongest relationships (friendships, collegial, romantic, all kinds) I offer repair when I have broken a promise, or caused someone I am in relationship with pain. It is beautiful to be in relationship with friends where repair is welcomed, valued and built upon. -Aisha Hauser (CLF)
When have you offered repair in a broken relationship?
Personal Preferences
CLF Learning Fellow Donté Hilliard asks us:
Do we sometimes confuse our personal expectations with communal covenant? Tell us about an experience you have had of this.
Family Covenants
CLF Learning Fellow Katherine Hofmann asks us today:
Do you have family covenants, any sort of internal agreements that help your family unit? How do you restore covenant with each other? How do you renegotiate and change those agreements?
Making A Living
Earlier in life, I said many times, ‘If I didn’t have to spend so much time making a living, I’d spend it helping people.’ When I made that statement it never occurred to me that a prison sentence would meet that objective. So for the past two decades, I’ve helped fellow inmates in myriad ways—from writing letters to their families to explaining how to find the area of a circle so they could pass GED tests, to, sometimes, just listening to what they have to say. -John, a member of CLF incarcerated in Oklahoma who died in 2020
What would you dedicated your life to if you didn’t have to spend so much time making a living?