I've just finished my seventh day of work for Pace e Bene out of the Oakland office. In those seven days my work has been focused primarily on reviewing interviews of participants in our ongoing Nonviolence Stories Project, which I am coordinating for the time being. In the process of reviewing interviews and composing some of these stories for an upcoming book, I have had the opportunity to enter into the lives of some remarkable individuals who have had transformative experiences with nonviolence as a direct result of the work of Pace e Bene. The stories of these individuals are at times saddening to hear the pain they have had to endure, but they are all incredibly uplifting at the same time—embodying the notion that a better world is possible, and indeed—is being formed right now—through the efforts of people committed to nonviolence.

Oddly enough, though I have been working on this project which seeks to relay the experiences that others have had with Pace e Bene’s services, I had not had much exposure myself to the work of Pace e Bene—that is, until I was lucky enough this weekend to get to participate in the three day seminar Engaging Conflict Creatively, led by facilitators Ken Butigan, Ken Preston, Veronica Pelicaric, and Sister Mary Littel. This weekend was part of the larger 10-month Nonviolence Education Program, and a number of the participants already knew each other from the first training session this past fall, but I found it very easy to slide right in to the warm and welcoming group.

I was excited this weekend for the opportunity it would provide for me to further familiarize myself with the work of Pace e Bene—it would be helpful, after all, to understand what the organization does if I am going to spend the next few months writing about that topic. I was also looking forward to the weekend considering I have had no formal training in nonviolence previously. Though I have been active in nonviolent direct actions in the past couple of years, I had just sort of thrown myself into this arena, and I figured it would be a good idea to get some professional, calculated insight into these actions.

Throughout the weekend we studied the CLARA process for dealing with conflicts. Moving through an elaborate role-play scenario of a community dealing with a hot-button issue, we worked on applying each step of the process as we attempted to sort out the community conflict through the course of the weekend. The training sessions and role-plays were punctuated by some very meaningful and delightfully led meditations.

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As I said, I came into the weekend thinking on a more macro-activism level about how I could use nonviolence techniques in activism. While I did gather some very useful centering techniques which I plan on using in the future, the most meaningful learnings from the weekend for me probably centered around how I approach one of the longest lasting and deepest interpersonal conflicts I face. I was challenged to think about the needs and fears of the person I often consider my enemy, and I was struck with the humanity that this process revealed. Though I cannot offer a testimony already of a revitalized and conflict-free relationship as a result of the training, it is clear to me that the things I took away from the deep reflection on transforming conflicts like these will help me to sit and be with this conflict until the time comes to pursue some sort of resolution. Already, in just one weekend, I am beginning to experience first hand what the participants of the Nonviolence Stories Project have been talking about—the transformative power of nonviolence that Pace e Bene trainings can unlock in the lives of their participants.