#lendyourvoice

[nobodyowensthis]

Here are some picture of my contribution to the Red Sand Project! If you want to participate in this great project, as well, message me or go to their website! :)

[nobodyowensthis]

Here is some more information on the red sand project. :)

[nobodyowensthis]

Overlooked populations - refugees, immigrants, girls, and others - are most at risk of being enslaved, spending their lives being exploited for the profit of others. We can't merely walk over the most marginalized people in our communities — those who fall through the metaphoric cracks. Molly Gochman's artwork, Red Sand Project, asks you to take the time to find and fill a sidewalk crack with red sand or other materials and to then share your sidewalk transformation on social media using #RedSandProject. Your participation expands the movement. Lend your voice.

[lend-them-your-voices-blog]

In today’s world it is so easy to forget the fight is still ongoing. So many of us are guilty of being consumed by our cosy lifes and  we forget that for some, it is not so easy.

But I won’t forget. I won’t forget the struggle my ancestors went through daily so that as a woman I have the right to vote. I won’t forget the battle for equal rights regardless for people of all races. I won’t forget the tears that came when my best friend found out that she could FINALLY marry her girlfriend.

But most of all, I won’t forget that for some the horrors of our past are still their present. We may have come so far but we still have some way to go, and we must keep striving to protect and preserve human rights. 

So lend your voice to those who have not been given the right to use theirs. Lend your voice to the fearful, the tortured, the oppressed. Lend your voice to the men women and children who spend their days dreaming of a better life. Lend your voice to the hurt and the hungry. The fight is ongoing. The fight is ours.

So lend your voice.

[sodinaorg-blog]

Alex Sullivan was killed on July 20th 2012 in the Aurora theater massacre, celebrating his 27th birthday. In this interview, Tom talks about his relationship with Alex, what he does when he watches a movie at the theater. He reflects on what life is like today without Alex and what he would like America to know. Leaving the statistics to others, he shares the personal things he now knows as a father of a murder victim, all with a goal to get people talking, to get people to do something before they have a similar story to tell.

(via https://soundcloud.com/user-810481127/tom-sullivan-alex-sullivan?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[sodinaorg-blog]

On June 17, 2009 my precious daughter, Emma Jane, passed away, five days before her 17th birthday. Emma was beautiful, bright, and articulate, with an effervescent personality. She was a talented musician who shared her musical gifts generously and participated in every musical ensemble she could fit into her schedule. She was a caring daughter, sister, and friend and a bright light in the lives of many, many people. Emma took her own life. When Emma killed herself she created a tsunami of destruction that swept up family, friends, teachers, ministers, mentors and neighbors. All of us struggled against the current of guilt, pain, shock and bewilderment. For her immediate family: her father, sister and me, life as we knew it ended. I’m not sure we will ever fully understand why Emma ended her life; what caused what must have been an incredibly deep sense of despair and hopelessness; or why she couldn’t reach out to us or to the many other caring adults and professionals she had in her life. Nonetheless, in the days, weeks and months after Emma’s death I turned to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to learn more about suicide and to search for clues that would help explain why my beautiful, bright, talented daughter was gone from our lives.

 The facts that I discovered about suicide shocked and alarmed me. Suicide claims close to 39,000 lives in the United States, which is nearly as many as breast cancer and more than twice as many as HIV/AIDS. According to the CDC, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death across all ages and the second leading cause of death for children ages 12-17. It is the only one of the ten leading causes of death that has not seen a decline or leveling off in the number of deaths each year. And the fact that is often missing from the debate on gun control is that 60% of deaths by firearms are suicides.

 With statistics like those, how is it that no one; not our schools, not our pediatrician, not even Emma’s therapist of three years, had talked to us about suicide and alerted us to the warning signs? If my husband and I knew the warning signs, would we have been able to get her the right help? My daughter’s pediatrician saw Emma just 3 weeks before her death for a hormonal disorder that causes depression. Had she understood the risk of suicide in teens like Emma, would she have treated that disorder more aggressively or, perhaps, referred her to a psychiatrist for an assessment? If her therapist, who she saw the night before she ended her life, had had specific training in assessment of suicide risk, would she have picked up a sign that would have allowed us to intervene before it was too late?

 I became involved with AFSP as a field advocate because I believe we can do a better job of preventing suicide. We can raise awareness about suicide prevention and mental illness and reduce the stigma that prevents people from seeking treatment. We can get all the information we already know about suicide prevention into the hands of the people who are best positioned to identify and intervene with those at risk: school personnel, primary care physicians, and behavioral health providers. We can fund research that will unlock remaining mysteries about suicide and mental illnesses and lead to safer and more effective treatments.  If we join together to do these things, I know we can save lives.

 There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Emma and remember the gift that she was in our lives. Working on behalf of AFSP is my way of honoring her and thanking her for the many beautiful memories that I treasure.

- Nancy von Euler

[sodinaorg-blog]

It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about us.

We’re here for a very brief period. Although we are ultimately responsible only for ourselves, we do not walk alone on this earth. We rely on each other for companionship and survival.

I live in Newtown, CT and have many questions stemming from the mass murder that occurred here. I never imagined it could happen here, in my neighborhood. Violence is not as remote as it once was. I continue to be horrified, angry, and feel profound sadness for the victims, their families and each degree of separation outward from this massive epicenter. How did we as a country, a community, a neighborhood, a family, a person, allow this to happen? Obviously, no one with implicit knowledge of what would occur would have allowed such an unspeakable act. You wonder about all the potential steps along the way of a person’s life where someone could have changed one thing that may have made a difference and kept the killer from picking up a gun that day or any day. Could the course of events have been altered to the extent that this tragedy possibly would never have happened?

It felt like we as a society have failed so many people along the way, and in small ways we fail a little every day. We also succeed in small ways every day. Can we increase our successes and decrease our failures at a more rapid pace in our struggle to creating cultural change and a more peaceful world?

I see this cultural change as moving from a “me” to “we” attitude and it echoes the golden rule of treating others as we would like to be treated. Of course we need to do what’s best for us and our families. We’re all facing the same basic needs to survive, minimize pain and finding meaning in our lives. If these are the fundamental forces in our journey, can’t we seek happiness and meaning not just for ourselves and our families, but also for our neighbors, our community, and our country? Increasing happiness and/or minimizing pain around us, directly and indirectly, would bring us more happiness, no? While I may be the center of my universe, I can still empathize and have compassion for others.

Think of this as a progression that starts with internal reflection and a determination of what kind of world you want to live in; who or what do you want to surround yourself with? We can share our stories and values within our families, then outward with our friends, then our social circles and eventually these different social circles can start to overlap. These concentric circles ripple outward from ourselves, like drops of rain in a puddle. As the rain increases, these individual concentric rings radiate outward, like our social circles, and overlap with each other. A sense of what it is to be human, to share the same values and desires, to curb our judgement and labeling of others as different from ourselves and to lead by example. Radiating our humanness outward to all we come in contact with is contagious and can make a real and lasting difference. This has the potential to create broader cultural change that starts with each of us, from the ground up. We make a choice to live in a more positive, cooperative and collaborative way of life.

On most days, as I try to put this concept into practice, my behavior has changed in a few ways. I try to show my love for my wife and kids more often. I try to be more patient with myself and others. When I ask people how they are, I am genuinely interested. I try to be a better listener. I try to understand another’s point of view, especially if it’s different than mine and even though I may not agree with them in the end. I try to smile more. I’m more outgoing and friendly, not only to people I know but also to strangers. I offer more handshakes, hugs and warm greetings. I try to get to know people I don’t already know and to know the people I do know, better. I offer help more often. When I disagree or question someone’s actions, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and remind myself that they are doing their best to survive and get through this journey as best they can, just like me.

Let’s pick our heads up from our mobile devices and our social media pages and start actual conversations. Let’s listen, really listen, to other’s stories and try to better understand each other. If we do this, we may realize that we are much more alike than we are different. We can focus on the 80% we have in common and then discuss where our views differ, leaving more chance for open dialogue and questions. We can choose not to engage the people who make up the fringes or extremes of various debates, where walls barring communication are quick to rise. Instead, we can engage the vast majority of people who are open to other perspectives and actively seek to understand each other.

SODINA’s aim is to bring awareness to the scope, scale and proximity of violence in this country through telling stories as a way of building empathy, compassion and connectedness. If nothing else, if you come away with a more open mindset, feel less judgement toward others, and have more empathy, compassion or a better appreciation for what someone else has endured or is enduring you will have succeeded. If you’re left wondering what I can do, please consider the various organizations highlighted on SODINA’s website and get involved.

To use The Avielle Foundation’s tagline: You Can Imagine™ a sense of greater connectedness and less violence, can’t you?

Tell us what you think: Can you see this mindset making a positive difference in your circles? What can we do to foster this cultural change? Can you share examples of this communication shift in action?

If you have a story to share about the death of a loved one as a result of violence, please submit your story here.

Join us:

Lend Your Voice, Share Your Story, and Create The Change

# SODINA | #lendyourvoice | #shareyourstory | #createthechange

[sodinaorg-blog]

The word for constellation in Navajo is: "So' Dine'é.” It means "Star People.”

SODINA

We are all human.

We are all here for a very short time in relation to the universe and thus rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But although we may look at our existence as insignificant at times, we hold enormous power over how we lead our lives and our potential for doing both good and bad.

We are all on the same journey, trying to make sense of our world, our place in it, to find meaning in our lives, trying to find happiness.

We are limited only by what we believe are our limitations. While we may have limited power and influence as individuals, if we cooperate and collaborate with like-minded people, we can accomplish much more than we may imagine.

We should ask ourselves why are things the way they are?

Why can’t things be changed?

There’s great probability that others feel as we do and we simply need to find each other, listen to each other and collaborate toward a common goal.

SODINA.org is about finding each other, sharing our personal stories, and giving them a place to shine for all to see.

A Journey

SODINA.org has been a journey that has taken on different forms but it effectively began on 12/14/2012 in the aftermath of the murder of 20 first graders, 6 educators and the shooter’s mother.  My family and I were fortunate in that we didn’t have a child, mother, aunt, or sister taken from us that morning. We did have friends who were inside the school, our friends’ children were there, and my kids spent 5 years there.  The shooting started in our neighborhood, with the shooter’s mother as the first victim, in a house I walk or run by most days.  Newtown, CT is where I call home .

Since December 14, 2012, I have collaborated with many people in trying to understand how to raise awareness about the scale, scope and proximity of violence. Some things have become clearer: there is incredible complexity around how or why such a horrific act could happen. I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would about firearms, lobbying, our political system, violence, brain health, and suicide. I’m no expert on any of them; I only know more than I used to.

My perception is that at the root of violence there is a lack of empathy, compassion and connectedness to others, to our families, to our communities, even to ourselves.

SODINA started with a realization that our safety is an illusion because if this horror can happen in Newtown, it can happen anywhere. SODINA is a project sponsored by The Avielle Foundation, whose mission is to prevent violence and build compassion in communities by fostering brain science research, community engagement, and education. Jennifer Hensel and Jeremy Richman founded The Avielle Foundation to honor their daughter who was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012.

The hope is that SODINA will become part of a movement from a “me” society to a “we” society. It is the next step in trying to raise awareness in a way that fosters empathy, compassion and connectedness as a way to reduce violence in our country.

Human Connection vs. Statistics

The statistics on violence are sobering, especially considering the number of suicides with a gun is more than 20,000 a year--two-thirds of the total deaths by gun. After a while though, the statistics start to blur and lose their meaning, and the human connection is lost. What affects us the most are people’s stories and being able to put a face to not only the victims of violence, but to also their surviving family and friends. Many people are affected by each life that is taken; it’s not just the immediate family and friends, there’s a larger ripple effect that often goes unseen. Violence knows no boundaries, it occurs in Newtown and Hartford, CT, Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, and many points in between.

The Elephant in the Room

Suicide is self-directed violence and is much more prevalent than most of us may think. In discussing this project with many people over the past two years, I've been shocked to learn how many people know someone who’s committed suicide. This is the area with the biggest opportunity to save lives.

Part of the SODINA project is to get people to put aside any shame or embarrassment they may feel when a loved one takes their own life. It’s a taboo topic that is too often swept under the rug and covered up in explanations of an unexpected death. Not discussing suicide in a responsible way only serves to keep it in the shadows and prevents us from becoming more aware of its prevalence. Not discussing it hinders our ability to help people with suicidal thoughts, to help them put distance between the idea and the action, and to provide the support needed to manage those emotions and improve brain health.

Through the SODINA website/blog and social media channels, we’re asking for your help to engage and inspire people to collaborate, share, listen, and to intentionally connect more freely with each other. We’ll do this through stories, ideas and by challenging the status quo. We’re encouraging people get their family and friends to share their stories of a loved one lost to violence in the hopes of building empathy and compassion (action stemming from empathy) towards others. We have a vision for how we're going to share these stories. We are seeking funding to realize this vision, but in the meantime will share selected stories via our blog and social media. When we secure funding and accumulate enough stories, we'll share them in a unique way. Our hope is that people realize the stories they are reading could be their own or someone close to them and that this may move them to some kind of action.

By listening to people’s stories and telling our own, we’re in a better position to understand and connect with our mutual humanity. By listening to each other’s stories, we can imagine walking in another’s shoes. By listening to people’s stories, we learn how the death of a loved one affects numerous people, deeply and permanently. By listening to people’s stories, we have the opportunity to build more empathy, compassion and connectedness, which has the potential to prevent more tragedies from happening.

We hope you’ll join us:

Please visit SODINA.org and The Avielle Foundation sites to learn more about this mission. If any of it resonates with you and you’d like to donate to the effort, please do so here.

If you have a story to share about the death of a loved one as a result of violence, please submit your story here.

Lend Your Voice, Share Your Story, and Create The Change

# SODINA | #lendyourvoice | #shareyourstory | #createthechange