restorative justice circle

yeah feeling clear headed today, not sure if it's the beautiful weather, getting outside the refrigerator today, having some interesting dreamscapes come through last night, some good nights of sleep, moving my wallet out of my left pocket thus relieving sciatic symptoms, or the general benevolence of being alive, and also in love

another contributor could be last night's interesting meeting around restorative justice circles, there were five of us this week, including a newcomer who asked interesting questions i appreciated

and the host, who has done offender-victim mediation work for a few decades and continues to be active in creating restorative justice circles in new mexico through her work with Outcomes, a social work organization receiving referrals from several other agencies

we continued working around the scenario i brought to the group last week, one which i was very stirred up about, the murder of eight Afghani boys a couple weeks ago, roused from their sleep, handcuffed and shot by US military

while it is a stretch to imagine applying what we are doing to such an international incident, we needed something to practice on and roleplay, and i appreciated others' willingness to work on this particular incident with me, i had been feeling very peripheral to the group and this process allowed me to find more meaning in it than i had

without knowing the details of the incident, i stepped into the role of an uncle to the murdered boys, barely containing my rage at what happened, coming to the group process out of a desire to do something besides the violent vengeance that would be a temptation to someone who has lost so much without purpose

and the next day i heard a report on democracy now that there is indeed an uncle who is active in the process of trying to find some publicity, some help, something for dealing this tragedy

in any case, i was impressed with the process, imaginary as it was, for there was something healing for me in going through a process which led to some concrete actions for reconciliation, moving forward in a way that gave an alternative to another-eye-for-an-eye, including a public international apology by a US general, a tree planting ceremony, and the formation of an Afghani restorative community space which would allow international networking/monitoring of the ongoing situation

whether or not it could happen, it was reassuring to me to see enemies move beyond their official roles, and begin to be simply human beings with one another, and perhaps the imaginal landscape is one place we can at least begin this healing work, i know it made it all for me that much more real