This has been a full week.
Many family discussions about sharing.
The issue was that Gage was making decisions that some of his toys were just too special to share.
Emma was feeling bad, and that she didn't want to be sharing her toys anymore.
I started to ask the question, "what makes something genuinely too important to share?" Then I could myself and I told them, "...this is weird. If something is so special; isn't that precisely why you would want to share it?" I asked them to think of times in the day when they can work on cooperation to help the house run more smoothly. I'm sure we will chat about it in the next few days. The kids ARE alright.

I enjoyed learning about Insight Development Group. The group introduces concepts of restorative justice to inmates upon request. They offer a 33 week course. I was a little taken aback by the amount of criticism from my class toward the group. The prison population is not a sympathetic one.
I also visited The Office of Equity and Human Rights. Their focus community is people with disability and minority, immigrant populations. They work with the city to design and plan for a community that is changing demographic quickly. Beautiful offices and view, amazingly bright and generous people. Portland is well to have these people analyzing the big picture and advocating for equity. It is not an easy task to show people, who are doing what they have always done, what institutional racism is. But, it is important for people to understand, just because you or I are not racist; does not mean that our institutions are perfect, or balanced, or equitable.

I am beyond tired, though I had a brilliant work day. I have been experiencing some tension with one client and we had a discussion about it today. I was so pleased with how responsive she was. I told her how grateful and impressed I was with how I could tell she was pissed off at me, but that she maintained an waited to talk civilly in private. We had a smooth rest of the evening. Conflict is not something to be afraid of. Conflict is about negotiating boundaries that work, meeting people where they are and asking for what you need. I started reading NVC again. I'll quote it here tomorrow if I have the time.

For now, this is the prison in Norway that I would like to; at least visit, if not work for.

Here is a link to an article written shortly after completion, I believe.

Isn't is amazing?

http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/norway-builds-the-worlds-most-humane-prison