The Courage To Remain Human – Tending the Roots of Our Humanity
What helps us remain openhearted in a world that can leave us weary? What roots sustain our humanity—and how do we nurture them in ourselves, our relationships, and our communities?
We invite you to join us for three evenings of reflection, sacred listening, and conversations that matter. With Lori Ann’s book, Rooted in Humanity, as a companion, we will explore the gifts we carry—our capacity for wonder, compassion, integrity, dignity, courage, and hope—and the responsibility we hold for bringing these gifts into the world.
Weaving selections from the book with the poetry and prose of poets, philosophers, and wisdom keepers, we will turn our attention inward to remember what sustains us, toward one another to explore what it means to see and be seen, and outward to consider how our everyday choices can nurture a more benevolent community.
Together, we will reflect on what it means to live rooted in humanity: to hold another’s dignity equal to our own, to listen with curiosity and care, and to bring our values into the choices we make—even when doing so asks something difficult of us.
Grounded in the immersive Circle of Trust® experience developed by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal, our time will include quiet reflection, personal writing, and small-group and whole-circle conversations. Each person is welcomed as a journey partner—bringing their own lived experience and accompanying others with respect, openness, and care. There is room to speak, room for silence, and freedom to pass.
Come as you are—with your questions, your weariness, your hopes, and your capacity for wonder. Together, we will tend the roots that sustain us and explore the courage it takes to live more fully into our shared humanity.
Our Three Conversations
Session One — The Light Within: Remembering the Gifts We Carry
Attention • Wonder • Sensitivity • Integrity • Inner Wisdom
We begin by remembering moments when we felt most connected to our humanity. What qualities have we carried since childhood? Which have deepened through lived experience—and which have we learned to hide or dismiss?
Through poetry, prose, and selections from Rooted in Humanity, we will explore sensitivity as a capacity for witnessing, wonder as a way of paying attention, and integrity as the relationship between what we hold within and how we live.
Questions we will carry:
● When have I felt most fully human—most present, alive, and true to myself?
● Which gifts have I learned to minimize, and what might they be asking of me now?
● What helps me hear my own quiet knowing?
● Where does my outward life reflect what I hold sacred within?
Session Two — The Space Between Us: Holding One Another’s Humanity
Compassion • Dignity • Curiosity • Reciprocity • Sacred Listening
Our second conversation turns toward relationship. We will reflect on what happens when we feel seen and heard—and what it asks of us to offer that presence to another.
We will also make room for the difficult questions: the weariness of caring without reciprocity, the boundaries that sustain compassion, and the courage required to remain curious when another’s experience differs from our own.
Questions we will carry:
● What has another person done that helped me feel my dignity was being held?
● What happens within me when I listen without preparing a response?
● How do I experience the relationship between compassion, reciprocity, and boundaries?
● What helps me remain open when I feel unseen or misunderstood?
Session Three — The Light We Bring: Living Our Humanity in Community
Courage • Hope • Discernment • Responsibility • Benevolence
Our final conversation brings us into the communities we help create. How do the gifts of our humanity become visible through our speech, choices, relationships, and willingness to take responsibility?
Together, we will explore hope that can acknowledge grief, courage expressed through small acts, and benevolence practiced when circumstances make it difficult. We will consider how living rooted in humanity can support a Community’s Coming of Age™.
Questions we will carry:
● What does remaining human ask of me in this season of my life?
● Where am I being invited to bring greater courage or benevolence?
● What is mine to tend, and where do I need the companionship of others?
● What would a Community’s Coming of Age™ look like in the places where I belong?
