March 31, 2015

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As I am writing this newsletter, I am sitting at an airport in Geneva, on my way to my next stop on this extended trip I'm on. By the time you get it, I'll have finished leading workshops in Madrid and be on my way to Israel. Sometimes being away gives me an opportunity to step back and take a look at what I'm doing in a fresh light. Especially now, as I just finished writing a new blog piece, I am "discovering" a simpler way to describe what I am doing. 

As of now (and it may get clearer still) it is that I see my work as offering support to our collective movement towards our dreams. 

I experience some inner peace as I am seeing all the many strands of what I do lining up with this frame. I also touch on a reservoir of great humility, which is also a source of inner peace. I know how wide the gap is between current reality and the dream - for me, for so many I know, and for the world at large. I know that I can only do what I can do, and that it may never be enough. Still, I am connected with untold numbers of people similarly committed, both near me and far away in time and space. Whether or not we will succeed is an open question, and, still, the knowledge of shared participation in this grand experiment is deeply satisfying.

The dream that fuels my work is a vision of a world that functions in a fully collaborative manner, without coercion, based on full willingness and a commitment to care for everyone's needs. 

I imagined such a world in twelve fictional stories that were published last month in my second big book, Reweaving Our Human Fabric: Working Together to Create a Nonviolent Future. What a huge celebration it was to finally see it in print!

Most of my work, like most of that book, is about how we are laying the seeds for that future today. The work itself takes many forms, and rests on many passions. I am often told by people that they are amazed by just the sheer volume of what I manage to do. I feel immensely grateful, often in awe, about having been given sufficient energy and oomph to carry such big dreams and keep going despite the immense gap.

In my recent blog post called "Collaboration, Willingness, and Leadership - Now and in the Future" I speak more fully of my dual focus of nurturing vision and providing concrete, practical support to people moving towards their dreams, on all levels.

As I look at the variety of public offerings I have coming up, I see that all of them are directly aligned with moving towards big dreams. I am continuing to offer collaborative leadership coaching calls, even though so far the attendance has been very small. It's one of the ways I remain steadfast about my commitments: when I have faith in what I do, I continue to do it even if it takes time to catch up. In 1997, when I started having a weekly practice group, together with my sister Arnina who was then living in California, we had only three people in the group. Over the years, the group grew and grew, until I was done with this form of teaching. I hope very much that these calls will be a place for leaders committed to collaboration to find ongoing support in the challenging task they face.

One of my upcoming NVC Academy courses is about collaboration in the workplace, which is no longer just a rare dream of pioneers, since more and more mainstream management theorists speak about collaboration as key to the future of organizations. Another is about taking 100% responsibility for every relationship, an act of leadership that allows us to move closer and closer to having relationships that truly work for us. Finally, I am soon leading my next Leveraging Your Influence retreat, this time in Chicago.

You can find out more about all these offerings below. You can click here to hear details about happenings since I've been back from my mini-sabbatical, including an update about the Minnesota Child Custody group, now in high gear for the possibility of passing new legislation, collaboratively made; how the Leveraging Your Influence program is unfolding this year in Oakland; organizational work I have done in the last while; and how the BayNVC team is evolving. This and more, here.

If you are wondering why I am not telling you more about all the gifted events I have been adding to my offerings, it's because I want to now dedicate every other newsletter in its entirety to my experiments in gift economy. For now, I only want to say that providing so much without receiving anything in direct exchange is the most reliably joyful activity of my life in a very long time. I am also grateful beyond words to all the people who are supporting this ongoing experiment with monthly donations through the Circle of Support, and I hope many more will join them to help me reach my goal of having all my public offerings entirely gifted. That, in itself, will be one dream accomplished.   

In hope and peace,

Miki Kashtan

Image credits: "Dream of an Orphanage child" by SAM Nasim, and "Dream Big" by Garry Knight: both from Flickr CC.

Reweaving Our Human Fabric  

Imagine: A future world in which we all value people and life and participate in a flow of generosity. 

In her new book, Reweaving Our Human Fabric: Working Together to Create a Nonviolent Future, Miki weaves together vivid social science fiction stories that bring that world to life with compelling nonfiction about how to get there

Start a book reading group and buy 5 copies or more at a 40% discount from us! 

Spinning Threads of Radical Aliveness  

Miki's first book, Spinning Threads of Radical Aliveness: Transcending the Legacy of Separation in our Individual Lives, has been incredibly well-received by people all over the world. Over 1,100 print copies and 300+ Kindles have been sold. 

Start a book reading group and buy 5 copies or more at a 40% discount from us! Please continue spreading the word if you know anyone else that may benefit from this extraordinary work. 

The Little Book of Courageous Living

Buy for a friend! 

With grace, acuity, and humor, Miki has shared with thousands of people on five continents how to live, in every moment, from love, courage, and truth - the three hallmarks of nonviolence. This little book contains 200 concise, evocative distillations of her wisdom, illustrated with powerful and original images by Mili Raj. It is an invitation to you to bring more courage to your life.