Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Remarkable Conversations, Unexpected Outcomes

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Have you ever been fired? Did you ever have an employer who listened deeply to the reasons why you wanted to continue in the job? And who then changed her mind about laying you off? And found an unconventional but creative way to keep you on? This week Miki Kashtan tells a very personal story about how she called a part time employee, Emma Lou Jones, to say her services were no longer needed. It didn’t work out like that. Emma says “You have my full permission to tell our incredible story.”

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Israel, Palestine, Home, Me – Part II

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I live in a country now [the US] that I believe doles out much more harm to the world than Israel ever has… Still, one can truly not know in the US, or one has to make a serious effort to know. Israel, by contrast, is agonizingly small, and the harm, whatever it is, is always so near, only a few kilometers away, visible.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Israel, Palestine, Home, Me – Part I

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I started crying at the closing circle when the person who created the spontaneous prayer said, while motioning to the Separation Wall visible from the window of the room we were sitting in, that it feels to him like the wall had disappeared while we were there together. I knew exactly what he meant, the magic that was created in the room. I knew without any doubt that what we were doing was eminently possible on a much much larger scale…

Gender and Sexuality

Sex, Vulnerability, and Power

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I often wonder what life was like in earlier cultures, before the split between the sexual and the spiritual was institutionalized, before the body became the site of sin, before being spiritual became associated with celibacy, asceticism, and withdrawal from the world.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Ego, Mind, and Culture

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It took me some effort when I decided, some years ago, to deliberately free my language from the word “ego.” I did not want to use a concept so loaded with negative charge. I want my language to reflect my commitment to a different view of human nature instead of supporting the view that inside each of us there is a core part that must be transcended or suppressed in order to become a mature, functional member of human society.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Money, Value, and Our Choices

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When I look at it deeply, I really cannot understand, on the human plane, why I give the woman who cleans my house less money than the acupuncturist or naturopath who attend to my body… In effect, setting up the system in the way that it is means that some people’s needs are valued more than others.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Money, Needs, and Resources

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My vision is of a world in which needs are routinely met, in which the experience of need satisfaction is the norm rather than the exception. Considering how far this vision is from what we mostly know in our modern world, the question of the possibility of meeting human needs takes on a great deal of significance.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Language, Meaning, and Consciousness Transformation

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When I can choose to relate to people, I am exercising choice instead of habit or obligation. I want my choice to be based on care and respect for the other person at the same time as holding tenderly my own vulnerability and caring for my needs. When I am able to do that, then even the most faltering moments of confusion become opportunities to transform my consciousness and align it with living into a future possibility.