youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUVmPVKaJzk

Folks, here's my (illustrated!) TEDx Talk  on Mindfulness in the Midst of Conflict at…

Many years ago I briefly worked as a case manager for a legal referral service in Allentown, Pennsylvania. My job was to listen to people's legal troubles and align them with an affordable attorney.

One day, I got a call from a client -- let's call him Phil --  who had been trying, with no luck, to find an attorney with experience with "monkey cases."  And he wasn't talking…

My alma mater, Dickinson College, just published this article about me in its summer magazine.…

Today is Groundhog Day -- one of my two favorite rodent-based holidays.  And according to both Punxatauney Phil and Staten Island Chuck, spring…

I confess that spirituality is not my strong suit. It's up there with sports in terms of admirable things that don't jibe with my addled attention span or intellectual bandwidth or skills.  No disrespect to either thing.  They're just not my jam.

However,  I'm ever so grateful for what various faiths have brought to the peacebuilding field. I was (unsuccessfully) raised Catholic, but I admit that the peace and forgiveness-themed…

Folks, we just wrapped up a 40-hour Basic Mediation Training, putting 26 people from all walks of life on the path of joining New York City's largest civilian peacebuilding force. This was a pretty eclectic group -- including a mother & daughter, a hypnotist, a couple of triathlete trainers, and three people from Switzerland. (Yep, we were teaching the Swiss about neutrality. Oy.). Here's a little photo essay to give a sense of how we roll -- combining visual,…

Virtuoso sitarist Ravi Shankar passed away this week.  George Harrison called him the father of world music, for introducing the sitar to the west...

...and to the Beatles.  I recently gave a presentation on the…

Yesterday, animal mediation specialist Debra Voda Vey Hamilton interviewed me for an upcoming telesummit she’s producing. This is one of the stories I told.

When I was fresh out…

I grew up in North Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, then a blue-collar steel town, population 2,000-ish.  The nearby steel mill is now a…

Folks, I have the honor of giving a lunchtime presentation at the United Nations Development Program next Wednesday, November 14th.  Below is the flyer.  It's free, and you can come in person or call in.

The UN Interagency Framework Team for Preventive…

While I love packing for trips, I’m no fan of airports — what with the $8 water, security theater, uninspiring shopping, and nagging, low-level mix of boredom and fear. (There’s probably a German word for…

My sweet tooth will be my undoing.

I just got back from the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) conference in New Orleans. Among other highlights, I got to meet some Twitter followers in real life -- to wit, Jason Dykstra,…

Folks, here's an article in the big fat fall fashion edition of ELLE magazine...about New York Peace Institute's Mediation Training. Bob Morris, author of Assisted Loving, recently took our training, and put it to good use on the homefront with his hubby, Ira.

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Bob Morris had an anger problem, in his marriage and his life. Could mediation—typically used to resolve conflict as…

I recently joined NYC Sketchnoters Group, and tonight is our second meeting. Sketchnoting is all about using usual visual images --  drawings, symbols, shapes, icons, color, etc. -- to record ideas and convey meanings.  For visual thinkers, it's a great companion piece to traditional chicken scratch note-taking.  …

Folks, well into the 21st century, our Roma (commonly known as Gypsy) brothers and sisters are still subjected to all kinds of segregation, discrimination, and marginalization worldwide.  Before my New York Peace…

I teach a course at New York University's Center for Global Affairs called "How to Build Your Own NGO."  My aim is to provide students with practical, nuts and bolts skills they'll use in the non-profit sector, to augment their wingnut and screws theoretical learning. (I wrote more about…

Here's a guest post from my friend and peacebuilding agent provocateur Ashok Panikkar, Executive Director of the Indian conflict resolution organization Meta-Culture.  I'm not sure I agree with everything he says below. But he is quite persuasive...even moreso in person, where he'll…

This week we lost a great peacebuilding visionary and pioneer, Raymond Shonholtz.  I, along with many others, lost a friend, teacher, partner and mentor. As founder of Community Boards, Ray practically invented the modern community mediation center --  transforming the idea from a quasi-court apparatus to full-service hub for…

Developing one's voice as a mediator can be tricky business. Our personality, empathy, and humor should shine through with our clients...accompanied by a soupcon of acting.  Maintaining neutrality, suppressing your political/religious/personal views, and poker-facing the bizarre can…