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Fall Campaign
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WE ARE ALMOST THERE! CAN YOU HELP MEET OUR GOAL?
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from Kit Miller 
A Love Letter to you, our funders.
We are here because of you. No matter how important our mission or how devoted we are to squeezing every penny, no matter how many volunteers are eager to help, you keep the lights on and the tea kettle warm. Through us, today you shared granola bars with hungry teens at our nonviolence clubs. You provide a small salary to the amazing young people who work here. You offer the gift of peace to the 4th grade teachers who ask us to teach their students. You make it possible for a young woman from Bogota, Colombia to spend a year learning to be the change before returning to the violence and struggles in her country. You gave us the ability to inspire and teach visitors from throughout the US as well as from Japan and New Zealand this year. Your choice to donate offered hundreds of youth and hundreds of adults a first-hand experience of community-based nonviolence. Gandhi said, "in a gentle way, you can shake the world." Can you feel the tremors?
from Anna-Kristina Pfeifer  Looking back onto this last year at the Gandhi Institute I am in touch with much gratitude and I want to share some of the gifts I was blessed with with all of you. The first one is the garden. Once again, I was trusted by my fellow Gandhi staff to take on a leadership role in something I had little experience: managing the community garden on the vacant lot next to the Gandhi house. I am deeply grateful for all the learning and collaboration with a dozen of volunteers who gifted their service to the Institute and the land over the course of the last growing season. I want to mention especially Marie Hickey who has contributed countless hours of hard work and dedication to the garden. She embodies selfless service to me. I am deeply grateful to have spent so many hours with her and having learnt from her vast gardening knowledge and satyagraha spirit. I am grateful for having come closer to nature and its cycles and miracles by actively witnessing all the steps from starting seedlings in the greenhouse to canning green tomato chutney a couple of weeks ago for the winter.
from Shannon Richmond
 I am so grateful to look back on 2013 and remember the times we've had the conference room full of people, learning together about Gandhi, Dr. King, and how nonviolence can possibly apply to our lives today. Our Gandhi Summer Intensive was one of these beautiful occasions! Five days with people of all ages, races, backgrounds, beliefs, and professions, and we created a space to hear each other whether we were sharing the same perspective or vehemently disagreeing! When I reflect on this five-day workshop and others we've had at the Gandhi House, I believe we are creating Dr. King's Beloved Community, and it gives me hope for the world. I am so grateful to work for an organization that not only champions a different way of relating to each other in the community but also embodies this care and valuing of human beings in our day-to-day operations. 
Gratitude is a word that matches my experience at the Gandhi Institute. The first thing that I want to mention is that I have found here a quality of unconditional love that I haven't known before, and it is related with the acceptance and respect that I receive constantly for who I am. What I mean by this is that I donīt feel that there is an expectation for me to be different than who I am or to be on my own rhythm. The message that I've received is that I matter no matter what. Everyday my colleagues provide their support by encouraging me to be transparent, to take responsibility for my own life, and to love myself. How can I not be grateful to be here!?! In my heart I know this is a gift that I will share with many others in my country. from George Payne 
I am grateful to live in a world with peace warriors such as Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Julian Assange, Bono, Jody Williams, Thich Nhat Hanh, Julia Butterfly Hill, Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, and many others like them. The death of Nelson Mandela is a cause for great sorrow, but it is also a reason to celebrate the lives of people from across the planet who fight for social justice, stand up for truth and reconciliation, and believe in the unconditional power of love. In the eternal words of Gandhi: "What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole world if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope."
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|  December 2013 Dear friends,
I was fascinated to read a few years ago about the relationship gratitude has to joy. Dr. Brene Brown, following a personal crisis, decided to turn her very large body of interviews examining shame in people's lives to look at the people in her data set who reported little or no shame. She found something surprising: those people who reported gratitude as an important element in their lives also reported experiences of joy. There was such consistency of those two things being reported together that she concluded that an attitude of gratitude could help to create an experience of joy. Isn't that wonderful? I hope you will experience as much joy as we do in reading of our gratitude below.
As I typed the above, news of Nelson Mandela's death appeared on my screen. We dedicate this newsletter to him and to his extraordinary, world-changing life.
With love from everyone here,
Kit Miller,
Director
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Going Beyond the Headlines:
Engaging in Conversations,
from Exploration to Expression
Sundays, 6-9 pm
January 12-February 23
This seven week course is designed to establish a conversational framework that allows for safe, open discussions while critically examining social issues of the world. In addition, this course will provide an opportunity to voice one's individual connection to these social events using creative tools for self-expression and social engagement.
To learn more and register contact George:
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Inc
Developing Trauma Resiliency:
Introductory 1-Day Workshop
Friday, January 17, 2014
9 am-5 pm
The Gandhi House
929 South Plymouth Avenue
Rochester, 14608
Drawing on the wisdom, research, and teachings of Nadine Hoover, author of
Trauma Healing: Advanced Workshop Manual, as well as long-time trauma researcher Peter Levine, we look forward to guiding you through an experiential workshop to strengthen your resiliency to trauma in your own life and increase your ability to support those with whom you work who have experienced trauma.
During this workshop, we will explore:
- why encouraging someone to "talk it out" may not be the best strategy,
- how to use the body to recover from traumatic events,
- how to be a companion to someone who has experienced trauma (including yourself).
Only 20 spots available. Registration is required by January 15, 2014. Register Here.
Requested donation $75. Please plan to contribute at least $25 when you register to confirm your place in the workshop.
To request a scholarship, contact Shannon: srichmond@ur.rochester.edu or 585-463-3266.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
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Interested in learning about and practicing meditation?
Join Robert Massar, a Gandhi Service fellow and student at the Rochester Zen Center as he leads a weekly meditation session.
Open meditation every Saturday
10 am-11 am in the meditation room at the Gandhi House
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Save the Date!
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In February Civil Rights legend Bernard LaFayette Jr. will be speaking and training in Rochester.
Mark your calendar for
Monday, February 17 at 12:30 pm
in the Kate Gleason Auditorium
at Central Library
to hear Dr. LaFayette give a free talk.
Dr. LaFayette will also be speaking February 17 at 7-8:30 pm at Asbury Methodist Church!
We are still raising funds for his visit. To contribute or help sponsor please contact Kit Miller at kmiller@admin.rochester.edu
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