A short piece about speaking and connecting as a community.
To sit in counsel with each other and speak our truths it is a powerful experience and brings great insights for the individual and the community with whom they are sat.
When you feel it is right or when it is your turn to speak, take the talking piece and pause. Breathe. Feel what is true for you at that moment and then speak in answer to the question asked of you as a member of the community.
The four tenets are: speak spontaneously and as appropriate to you, speak with sparsity, speak from the heart, and when it is your turn to listen, listen from your heart. The person speaking is the most important person in the world to you at that moment and has the full attention and respect of those present.
Answer the question asked of the community and answer it for you, do not as if for others. Answer with "I". There will be more than one round so do not fear if other truths come up for you as others are speaking as you will get another turn or turns to speak, by which point your truth may have shifted again.
In this way our community shares thoughts and feelings about something important and as the rounds continue a consensus is found and everyone is heard equally, without judgement and safely.