Siem commented on Awakening together by Larry Yang
Reading how they take care to create multicultural spaces with intent at the EBMC, and how they have a number of agreements for participants to help this along. I like them so let me share a few:
"Practice Self-Focus: Attend to and speak about your own experiences and responses. Do not speak for a whole group or express assumptions about the experience of others.
"Understand the difference between intent and impact: Try to understand and acknowledge impact. Denying the impact of something said by focusing on intent is often more destructive than the initial interaction.
"Practice 'Both/And': When speaking, substitute 'and' for 'but'. This practice acknowledges and and honors multiple realities.
These are a few, and they're maybe very basic, but I think they might fit well in many situations where we come together with our differences.
