Maria Arpa
This week
Connecting as humans
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Our common humanity
There are so many opportunities to express our differences in the worst possible ways, and, as a society, we seem only too willing to broadcast our opinions in the hope that people will be persuaded to support our claims and beliefs.
Don’t get me wrong, I can be up for a good debate. I can reason, argue and logic my way through a conversation if we’re all agreed that this is game we’re playing. However, rarely does it stop there. Just like a game of football, if it were only about the 45 minutes each way, and then back to unity, it could be considered entertainment. When it becomes tribal competition, fights, hooliganism, and violence that go on long after the game, we need to ask ourselves a few questions about what we’re engaged in.
If we truly want to entertain ourselves through competitive mastery then we need a starting point in our common humanity. It’s simple to find. We all have a beating heart and a pulse. Our heartbeat and pulse are fundamental aspects of humanity, representing the rhythm of life. If I start there, I can easily empathise with your desire to live because I have the same desire. And then it’s easy to understand that you want to live well because I want to live well, too.
From that place we can ask, ‘how do we discuss our differences, while remembering that we both want to live well?’
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
The DRM provides the language to explore taking care of our desire to live well even when we don’t agree.
The Wednesday Whisper
What would you do to live well and allow someone else to live well, too?
PODCAST
Have you subscribed to my Podcast, All Things Conflict?
This is my new vehicle for sharing insights, experiences and wisdom with guests and friends talking about conflict.
Apple Podcast Channel
ANNOUNCEMENT
I have been writing this blog every week for 10 months a year, for more than 10 years. As the Podcast gains traction, I will be retiring the blog over the coming weeks and sending you excerpts from the podcast.
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