Story based on a book by Sheila Zubrigg
This is an exercise to practice asking “why” questions. Listen to this story. Take a few minutes to journal or think about it, and then discuss. Continue reading
awareness
Identity Wheel
Activity: Instruct participants to draw a large circle. Create an identity wheel by drawing different “pie slices” for your identities using the following categories:
- Race/Ethnicity
- Gender Identity
- Sexual Orientation
- Religion/Spirituality
- Social Class
- Ability Status
- Other Identities?
A Room with a View
By James Jarrett
Hope has withered
And faded
Like cut flowers
No root
No branch
Life still held
But fleeting
Slowly fading
Nourished in vain
To try and keep going
For a few more days
Experiencing Pity
Begin with an example of poverty/suffering.
Discuss:
- What thoughts come to mind on the idea of pity? Is it a positive or negative to pity someone?
- Does pity motivate your service? If someone were to accuse you of serving out of pity, how would you respond?
- Have you seen/heard pity expressed at your service site? How have you addressed this? Continue reading
Conscientization
Read one or more of the following quotes about conscientization:
“The term [conscientization] refers to learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality.” – Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
“Conscientization is where one achieves an in-depth understanding of the forces that shape one’s life space, and becomes an active agent in constructing a different…reality.” – Caffarella & Merriam, 1999
The Call
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
I have heard it all my life,
A voice calling a name I recognized as my own.
Sometimes it comes as a soft-bellied whisper.
Sometimes it holds an edge of urgency.
But always it says: Wake up my love. You are walking asleep.
There’s no safety in that!
Remember what you are and let this knowing take you home to the Beloved with every breath.
Hold tenderly who you are and let a deeper knowing colour the shape of your humanness.
There is nowhere to go. What you are looking for is right here.
Open the fist clenched in wanting and see what you already hold in your hand.
There is no waiting for something to happen, no point in the future to get to.
All you have ever longed for is here in this moment, right now.
You are wearing yourself out with all this searching.
Come home and rest.
How much longer can you live like this?
Your hungry spirit is gaunt, your heart stumbles. All this trying.
Give it up!
Let yourself be one of the God-mad, faithful only to the Beauty you are.
Let the Lover pull you to your
feet and hold you close, dancing even when fear urges you to sit this one out.
Remember- there is one word you are here to say with your whole being. When it finds you, give your life to it.
Don’t be tight-lipped and stingy.
Spend yourself completely on the saying.
Be one word in this great love poem we are writing together.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a Canadian writer and mystic.
Note Who is Next to You
Look to your left and right and note who is there. Silently answer the following questions for yourself:
- What are the differences between us that separate us as people?
- Where are they from?
- Do I know their past experiences?
- Did they have a date to the high school prom?
- What does this person like to do?
- What do they like to eat?
- Are they an only child?
- What injustices have they endured?
- Where do they feel most comfortable?
- What do they want to do with their lives?
- Is this person politically charged? If so, where do they stand?
- Is this person introverted or extroverted?
Reflecting on Stress
A psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical “glass half empty or glass half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”
Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds. She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”
As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.”
It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down.
In Beauty May I Walk
In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully joyful birds.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
Prayer from the Navajo People.
Raising Awareness
Short introduction to the importance of raising awareness and how it connects to VIA’s Way of Dialogue.
“Our activity in this Way of Dialogue is more often work for social change. We are more interested than before in devoting our energy to work with the poor for structural change. The emphasis is more on acts of justice than on acts of mercy on behalf of the poor.”
When we speak of the way of dialogue in the VIA framework, we speak of a time where the people in communities we serve begin to share their stories with us. The problems that they voice are not often those that we once saw and thought to fix. As their stories become more familiar, we begin to join in some of their struggles, especially those struggles towards acknowledgement and recognition. A new form of service presents itself as we seek to promote the voice of the voiceless. Though we still work with those we serve on a personal level to address simple immediate needs, we also seek to work with them to address their more complex and long-term needs. On this, T. Wiesner says:
“We also become engaged in the struggle for social change. This usually leads to involvement in such things as protest, boycotts, demonstrations, actions of resistance, even civil disobedience, arrest, imprisonment.”