10 Ways to live I can Live Restoratively

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Today’s Blog Post
10 Ways to live I can Live Restoratively
As we approach Christmas this year and think about our gift giving to others… I stumbled across an Excellent Gift List that I post here today. It is presented by Dr. Howard Zehr and deals with Restorative Justice Issues.

It won’t cost much money – but could cost you your life!!!

As I read it over it makes so much sense to include this in my Gift Giving to Others. If I was to do these things in my life, then have an effect other people with my interaction – what a different world it would be. It is not just about Ex-offenders and Victims of Crime. It is about all of us.

10 ways to live restoratively
November 27th, 2009 – by Howard Zehr
1. Take relationships seriously, envisioning yourself in an interconnected web of people, institutions and the environment.
2. Try to be aware of the impact - potential as well as actual - of your actions on others and the environment.
3. When your actions negatively impact others, take responsibility by acknowledging and seeking to repair the harm - even when you could probably get away with avoiding or denying it.
4. Treat everyone respectfully, even those you don’t expect to encounter again, even those you feel don’t deserve it, even those who have harmed or offended you or others.
5. Involve those affected by a decision, as much as possible, in the decision-making process.
6. View the conflicts and harms in your life as opportunities.
7. Listen, deeply and compassionately, to others, seeking to understand even if you don’t agree with them. (Think about who you want to be in the latter situation rather than just being right.)
8. Engage in dialogue with others, even when what is being said is difficult, remaining open to learning from them and the encounter.
9. Be cautious about imposing your “truths” and views on other people and situations.
10. Sensitively confront everyday injustices including sexism, racism and classism.

I thought about this list and the frame work that it might be applied in. Or another way to say it – how might this be used as a guide in all areas of my life?

How about dealing with your spouse? Or maybe your fiancé or dating partner? How about with a teenager? And I can see it even working with children… and when children have to deal with their aging parents. And it does work in the reintegration of men and women coming back from prison.

The world that I was raised in had very little difference in color. We were pretty much the same. Other than a nasty war that had just taken place, my world was pretty safe from the kind of stuff some of the deep USA suffered from.

However we had racism as many new refugees flooded our area of Canada… they were a bunch of stupid D.P.s – a bunch of stupid “Displaced Persons” – from Hungary and the Ukraine fleeing the oppression that their country men knew… who turned out to be smarter than the rest of us – BY FAR!

And the idea of a FAG was growing as a negative. If you wanted to rile on someone that crossed you – you simple labeled him as a FAG. I had no idea what a Homosexual was at the time – but I simply knew because of the way that adults talked and used this word – we explored our nasty little world with it too.

We knew about Classism big time. We lived in a low income, DP neighbored, and “wrong side of the tracks area” of Regina, Saskatchewan. People were beaten up there, rapped, and sometimes hurt badly.

When we moved from that area of the city to a very classy area where the Doctors and Lawyers and Politicians lived – we knew we were different. It was very hard to break into the crowd of snot nosed, upper class kids at school. Most lived just a few houses south but they would not play with us much… they had their own friends.

Being caught in the middle of the community below the upper and above the lower – likely affected much that I would do later.

I wish I would have found a list like this when I was 14 years old – the magic time when much changed for me in my life.

I offer it today and point to Dr. Howard Zehr and his work with people – particularly in Restorative Justice.

Have a great day and week getting ready to enter the frenzy and fun of a short holiday that we prepare all year for…then begin paying for most of next year.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://emu.edu/blog/restorative-justice/2009/11/27/10-ways-to-live-restoratively/