Holding the Center, Feeding the Fire

In Taos we are not sitting around a bonfire during our Restorative Justice Circles, or our other Circles, but I often refer to thinking of our words as feeding a fire. A fire that burns in the center of our Circle. So our words become the sticks, the twigs, the logs that feed the fire.

There is something compelling about the Fambul Tok that i posted about earlier; it happens in the dark, by the light of a fire. Darkness and firelight, they are significant elements, with cultural relevance. No one is "on stage" in this setting and the night, like a dark shawl, envelopes the whole process. In that darkness, the words feed the fire, which leaps and illuminates the circle, the speakers, their words and their hearts.

The people participating in the Fumbol Tok process were thoughtfully prepared to take charge of the process, and use their own wisdom and traditions. They had someone assigned to support the man who was telling about the murder of his father. Someone who came immediately to his side, to support him in speaking the painful truth, exposing the murderer in their midst, but not resorting to violence himself.

The video ends with saying there may not be a difference between the Fumbul Tok at the fireside and what happens in a Circle in a classroom. I agree.

We can each feed the "fire"... the warmth and vitality of life that sits at the center of our relationships. We are doing it with Restorative Justice in Taos and we can do it in our homes, our classrooms, our business boardrooms, where ever we gather and truth is needed. Where harm needs to be acknowledged and repaired. Where ever healing needs to begin.

But we don't need to wait for the kind of tragedy and suffering that happens in war. We can begin the process of truth telling and heart full sharing NOW. Where ever we are, whom ever we are with. We need this. The world needs this. It always has.