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Features: Q— Photos and Inquiry by Julie Wiatt

What's your hope for the new year? How do you make peace after there's been fighting?

Julie Burns: "I think the most important thing is to recognize what you've done to create the disharmony. First you have to look at yourself."

Tseten Zalichin: "I think slowing down is very important. Even before getting angry, to be aware of all the sensations your body feels, to take a moment to diffuse the anger."

 

Joe Gaffney: "The first thing is to stop fighting. There has to be a cessation of hostility. After that I would think there has to be a mediation session with the antagonists and disinterested parties. You discuss grievances and try to find a way to atone for the damage and go on from there. But it's easy to say and not easy to do. And each party has to want to do it. At the end of WWI, because of the way it was resolved, the resolution was shoved down the throats of the Germans, it was a cause of the second world war."

Marguerite Gaffney: “I think the same [as Joe], and, once the parties have been brought to the table they have to tell each other as many ways as possible: ‘I want what’s good for you, what’s good for all of us.”

 

↓ Spence Porter: “Since I’m a therapist, I’ll stick to what I know about, individual relationships. I love what Thich Nhat Hanh says, that each side has to be very clear what the differences are, really clarifying what each side knows, believes, feels, what their convictions are. Like in therapy, cultivating curiosity about the other’s convictions, and exploring where you’re willing to change, what’s sacred and what’s just a residue of behavioral habit. Often what we’d like to change in our partner is something they’d like to change in themselves. Instead of a blame game, you’re allies in making changes.”

↓ Glender Paniagua: “You mean how to rebuild trust? By showing them who you are. If you have an argument with me, you forget who I am. Show yourself, re-prove yourself to rebuild trust. When good things come around, they know who you are. On the global level, let’s do more trades, let’s get involved with each other.”

↓ Justina Okonkwo: “Talking to both sides. When you fight you think bad of your enemy and your enemy thinks bad of you. When you have peace you bring joy joy joy, and progress.”

 

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