Download Habits of the Heart 2016

What we’re trying to do?
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provide skills, inner sustenance and strength
for living and being engaged in the real world

build courage and confidence to address the
challenges in our lives and in our world
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foster awareness of how we respond to our
world and to others so that we can live more
consciously and less fearfully

learn to hold the tension between:
(a) conflicting ideals in relationships; &
(b) our dreams and the way things really are
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promote personal and community growth
Format?
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Participation is always voluntary
We will use Parker Palmer’s “touchstones” and
circle method to learn and invite open, honest
conversation about things that matter to us.
There will be some time in the large circle, in
which we will learn together by building on our
own experience of each of the “Habits of the
Heart.”
To facilitate another level of learning, we will
invite participants to spend significant time in
small groups of 2, 3 or 4.
Music, Stories & Poetry are offered as way into our
own and other people’s experience.
Need more information?
Lyn Sowden, Elaine Paton, Darlene Watts, Carol
McCurdy, John Hull, Norma Morrison, Lauri Nevins,
David Ross or call Graham Bland @ 519-379-7992
What are the roots of
Habits of the Heart
Leading sociological thinker, Zygmunt Bauman, is a
Polish emigré forced to leave his homeland by an antisemitic campaign. He taught for many years at the
University of Leeds in England and explores the idea
that our lives have become largely limited to 2 spheres
– the Private and the Political.
On the other hand, we have tended to abandon the
Public sphere. The Public sphere includes all those
public places and opportunities in which ideas, values
and convictions can be shared through respectful
listening. There, relationships are built and
communities are formed and strengthened.
Habits of the Heart 2016
Finding Courage to Live
Lives Worthy of the Human Spirit:
“to waste our hearts on fear no more”
April 5th – May 10th
Tuesday evenings, 7-9p.m.
th
This series is the 5 instance of Habits of the Heart and
is designed to open up and occupy common, public
space. We aim to create an environment of safety in
which to learn and practice important habits by means
of which we will strengthen ourselves, our
communities and our public life.
All are welcome!
I Know a Stranger
What is it like to be a stranger, to talk to
strangers, to be part of a community of
strangers, to be a stranger in one’s own land?
How can strangers become friends? How can we
help Owen Sound to be a truly Hospitable
Community, free of racism and prejudice and
welcoming of diversity?
It’s not about Religion. It’s about Humanity.
Habits of the Heart does not promote religious ideals or
lifestyle. We do, however, intend that together we will
learn to respect and listen to one another, whoever we
are and whatever our background.
St. George’s Parish Hall
1049 4th Avenue East, Owen Sound
I Know a Stranger
April 5th Métissage: from Newash to
Mudtown, Set 1, Corkscrew City
presented by Larry Jensen (musician / poet), Mary Little
(visual artist), Susan Schank (historian & aboriginal handdrummer), Richard-Yves Sitoski (poet), Rob Rolfe (poet,
labour leader)
WHAT ARE THE HABITS?
Parker Palmer writes: “Habits of the Heart are deeply
ingrained ways of seeing, being and responding to life
that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images,
our concepts of meaning and purpose in life.” These
five taken together are critical to healthy communities:
*Understanding we are all in this together.
Mudtown, Set 2, Ring That Bell
We humans are a profoundly interconnected
species – entwined with one another and with all
forms of life, as global economic and ecological
crises have revealed in vivid detail. We must
embrace the simple fact that we are dependent on
and accountable to one another. At the same
time, we must save this notion of
interdependence from idealistic extremes that
make it an impossible dream. Which leads to a
second key habit of the heart …
April 26th The experience of a new Canadian
*Appreciation of the value of “otherness”.
Family: Haidar Hawash AlNasser and Fadia Alabdullah
We are all in this together. And, we spend our
lives in groups so we can be limited by “us” /
“them” thinking. But this does not have to mean
“us versus them”. Instead, it can remind us of the
ancient tradition of hospitality to the stranger and
put it into 21st century terms. The stranger has
much to teach us, if we are open to the creative
possibilities inherent in our differences. Which
leads to a third key habit of the heart …
th
April 12 Lenore Keeshig (from
Neyaashiinigmiing) shares her poetry
and other Indigenous Poetry
musical guest: tba
April 19th Métissage: from Newash to
and friends from Owen Sound’s Muslim Community
May 3rd Talking to Strangers:
Isaac and Lada Couto share their experiences as
newcomers to Owen Sound and (for Lada) to Canada.
With the music of Piper Hayes.
May 10th Imagining an Hospitable
Community Future
Panel on Action to stop Racism and promote welcoming
of diversity May Ip (musician / community-builder);
Anne McLaughlin (vice-principal) and Bess Nakashima
(student); Dr. Nkiru Nwebube (paediatrician); and
Ghzala Deloughery (concerned citizen)
with Owen Sound Singers in Accord
*Ability to hold tension in life-giving ways.
Life is full of contradictions – the gap between our
aspirations and our behavior; or, the observations
and insights we cannot abide because they run
counter to our own convictions. If we fail to hold
these contradictions creatively, they will shut us
down and isolate us.
But when we allow the tensions to expand our
hearts, they can open up new understandings of
ourselves and of our world. We are imperfect
beings in an imperfect world. The genius of the
human heart lies in its capacity to use these
tensions to generate insight, energy and new life.
Making the most of these gifts requires a fourth
key habit of the heart …
*A sense of personal voice and agency.
Insight and energy give rise to new life as we speak
and act, expressing our version of the truth while
checking it and correcting it against the truths of
others. But many of us lack confidence in our own
voices and in our power to make a difference. We
grow up learning to be members of an audience
rather than actors in a drama. Yet it remains
possible for us to find our voices, learn how to use
them, and know the satisfaction that comes from
contributing to positive change – if we have the
support of a community. Which leads to a fifth
habit of the heart …
*A capacity to create community.
Without a community, it is nearly impossible to
find our voice: “it takes a village …” Without a
community, it is nearly impossible to exercise the
“power of one” in a manner that multiplies. In a
mass society like ours, community rarely comes
ready-made. But creating community in the
places where we live and work does not mean
abandoning other parts of our lives. The steady
companionship of two or three kindred spirits can
kindle the courage we need to speak and act as
citizens and partners in the human enterprise.