The Seven Stones Blog

Community Creation

Today we held a community call investigating creation and how to create what is next for us. I asked the participants who arrived early for the call to create something

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Remembering

Have you noticed the September 11 remembrances were at a frenzied pace this year? It was as if I was reliving the day over and over again every time I

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Rediscovering Christmas

Would the overdone, overstuffed, consumer crazed Christmas exist without the media fuel? I understand that retailers are trying to sell goods for their businesses to be profitable so although I

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Random Acts of Violence

I woke up this morning thinking about suffering. Partly because I am reading This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness by Laura Munson.

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Social fabric: stuck between 2 contexts

Then I saw it. That is how it all works. I have to have one of everything and you have to have one of everything because we don’t have a clear social contract about the norms. Or I guess you could say the social contract we do have is about each person for him/herself so I am going against that contract by even making such a request. I could see the whole territory I have to traverse just to borrow one tool, one lousy tool. And I could see how I would rather have my own tool than confront this relatively simple set of transactions. So how then will I get the courage to have conversations about matters much closer to the heart? How will I get the courage up to break down some much larger barrier erected by this culture of separation? How will I find what I need to re-weave that social fabric so my sharing with my neighbor is more relevant than all of the noise I find in the context of separation?

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social fabric in motion

Because sufficiency is a lost art in living and business, we are constantly experimenting on ourselves. Everything we offer to our clients comes from the laboratories at Seven Stones and

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driving and social fabric

What is it, I thought, that has someone react with such venom when someone else is clearly under enormous stress? Isn’t that stress, or distress, the source of their erratic and disturbing behavior in the first place? I think that our sense of knowing each other, our sense that each person is doing their best at any given moment, that we are somehow in this together, is hidden from our view and missing in our hearts. This hole in our social fabric, this fraying of our knowing each other, of our sense of deep and real connection to all living being, permits us not to notice, or to even assume the best. This tear in the social fabric makes it ok to beep and yell and gesture in ways that only cause more harm.

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4 Virtual Learning Sessions plus 6-month Racial Affinity Group Experience

For this learning path, you will participate in the 4 virtual learning sessions and be enrolled in one of three Racial Affinity Groups:

1) People who identify as People of Color (Black, Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic)

2) People who identify as Bi-Racial or Multi-Racial

3) People who identify as White

*More specific affinity groups may be formed upon the completion of course registration

We believe that it is important to do our own work with people with similar racial experiences to build capacity for cross-race dialogue that supports authentic relationships and deep belonging for everyone. We will ask you to self-select into the group that best aligns with your racial identity. We recognize that for some this is not a simple choice and we are available to have a conversation with you to support your selection.

Together we will:

  • Reflect personally and collectively on the impact of embodied trauma, separation, scarcity and disconnection.
  • Work in learning partners and/or small groups for the sake of holding each other accountable and deepening our learning through multiple disciplines.
  • Engage in embodied practices for unwinding from the impact of racism in order to build stamina, capacity, and resilience.


Where:
Online Zoom Sessions

Time: 11am-12:30pm ET/8am PT/4pm GMT*

When: 5-Sessions scheduled between Sept 28, 2023 – Jan 26, 2024 (see below)

*All sessions will run from 11am-12:30pm ET.

Racial Affinity Group Schedule
Thurs, September 28, 2023 — 11am-12:30pm ET Kick-off/ Authentic Communication
Thurs, November 2, 2023 — 11am-12:30pm ET Unpacking Our Racial Autobiographies
Friday, November 17, 2023 — 11am-12:30pm ET Self-Compassion
Thurs, December 7, 2023 — 11am-12:30pm ET What is Sustainable Abundance?
Thurs, January 25, 2024 — 11am-12:30pm ET Inclusive Leadership

Course Registration

Upon registration, you will be directed to our online community space, where all aspects of your program will live, including: pre-work, event links, and a space to connect with fellow participants.

4 Virtual Learning Sessions Only

These four learning sessions will provide you with a new view and innovative framing of the problem as we see it. Below is a brief description of what will take place in each session:

  • Learning Session 1: Why Context Matters
    In session one, we look at our individualist narratives and the impact of not understanding the context in which we exist. 
  • Learning Session 2: Unpacking Trauma
    In session two, we discuss individual and collective trauma. We define trauma and look together about our current systems of inequality and how they evoke trauma-like responses in so many of us.
  • Learning Session 3: Global Anti-Black Racism: A History Lesson
    In session three, we get a history lesson like none other: we explore the global slave trade as the foundation for our current economic model.
  • Learning Session 4: Understanding Power
    In our last session, we examine power; power structures, our relationships with personal power; the importance of learning a healthy relationship with power when so many of us have had power abuse in our lives.


Where:
Online Zoom Learning Sessions

Time: 11am-1pm ET/8am PT/4pm GMT*

When: 4-sessions scheduled between Sept 21, 2023 – Jan 18, 2024 (see details below)

*All sessions will run from 11am-1pm ET.

Learning Session Schedule
Thurs, September 21, 2023 — 11 - 1pm ETWhy Context Matters
Thurs, October 26, 2023 — 11 - 1pm ET Unpacking Trauma
Thurs, November 16, 2023 — 11 - 1pm ET Global Anti-Black Racism: A History Lesson
Thurs, January 18, 2024 — 11 - 1pm ET Understanding Power

Course Registration

Upon registration, you will be directed to our online community space, where all aspects of your modular program will live, including: pre-work, event links, and a space to connect with fellow participants.