When the heart is moved into empathy, there is a quiver that is felt. Something inside me vibrates with the recognition that ‘the other’ is also me. This quivering of the heart allows us to see the suffering in front of us and to reach out to connect with the other. A heart that quivers frequently is a heart that is awakened by the realization that to embrace the suffering of others is to be opened and liberated by that suffering, to the possibility of experiencing ‘I am the other you and you are the other me.’ Fully felt, this response includes the re-imagining of the underlying structure that produces the suffering.
In this newsletter, four quivering hearts; stories of people that are close to our work and felt awakened by some realization of ‘the other.’ Good stories:
Kris Billeter
"Go Mo"
Sharon Weil
Christine Mason
~ Jacques
Kris Billeter TEDx
"Do you understand that in the event you are held hostage, you will not be negotiated for?" rang in Kris’ ears as she entered the gates at San Quentin for the first time.
This talk is about the consequences of the decision to cross that threshold anyway. Kris Billeter sits on the board with us and is also a deep-sea diver and business woman. Being an active witness with many years of exposure to our work, she now invites us to join her to invest in empathy. Kris’ talk culminates in a very moving story of how she herself got to practice empathy in a most unusual way during a visit to a GRIP class in San Quentin.
G0-M0!
The Marin Sangha Community hosted a presentation by Jacques and Grip graduate Edgar Moore, also known as ‘Mo’. At 60 years old, Mo was out a few months after doing 20+ years in San Quentin for a murder. He apologized to anyone in the audience that had ever suffered violence. He was working; picking up trash along the freeways for Caltrans but his dream was to get his A1 class driving license and drive trucks, like he used to In Alabama. At the cost of $2900.- that dream seemed a long ways away.
The folks from Marin Sangha got together and spontaneously chose to raise that amount for Mo and welcome him back into the world that way. The "Go Mo" campaign was born and a few months later Mo, overjoyed and fully taken by surprise, came to hug every living soul in the building to express his gratefulness. At the moment of this writing, he not only received his license; he was offered a job by the company that owns the driving school! Moving a just released life-sentenced prisoner from picking up trash from the freeways for Caltrans into the dignity of a profession and a place in our shared world is a real and beautiful gesture.
Thank you to our friends at
Marin Sangha
ChangeAbility: How Artists, Activists and Awakeners
Navigate Change
Sharon Weil- author, director, and friend of Insight-Out – engages twenty-five leading change-makers: artists, political and environmental advocates and activists, teachers, spiritual leaders, psychotherapists, somatic practitioners, and more in a conversation about how to meet change, hold hope, align with nature, have courage, and find the passion that fuels responsive innovation. Insight-Out’s director is one of those voices in this unusual and provocative work about how change happens.
I N D I V I S I B L E COMING HOME TO DEEP CONNECTION
Moving from Loneliness, Anger and Even Violence
to a Life Designed for Connection and Joy
“The book contains the transformative story of my participation in GRIP as a victim, coming full circle from anger and violence. This healing began my trajectory as an advocate for restorative justice, from a victim's perspective." ~ Christine Mason
Excerpt: "Hi, I'm Rusty," he said, calmly and with poise. "In the summer of 1977, I killed a person. I served 32 years in San Quentin Prison, where I met Jacques and began doing this work. Now I am paroled and working in the community. I’m working with men like me, to help stop them from taking the path I did; I teach them new skills”. “The first thing I'd like to do is to apologize personally to each and every one of you who has been the victim of a crime." His gaze traveled around the room; he made eye contact with each person, bowing to them and acknowledging their place in this circle. When Rusty looked at me, tears started streaming down my face. My mother had been killed during the same summer that Rusty had committed his crime. Rusty's apology was the first I had ever received. I had been waiting decades to hear those words from someone, and I didn't even know it. The apology went straight into my heart, tapping into a well of unfelt sorrow that I didn’t even know was there.
Eleanor Roosevelt left us with an important inquiry: “When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”
