Deuter “Earth Shadow”
I am one of millions who are in pain over seeing mans inhumanity to man. For years I would rail at the television hearing the stories of war, corruption and man made poverty. Sometimes I would rail in anger sometimes in tears. I knew there were millions of people out here in the world who felt similarly, and who are doing everything they can in every level of society all around this world to promote peace. People contributing to this effort from their own homes, in their own communities as well as people who are joined with organizations aiming toward similar goals. Each of us is a beacon of light in this world. I thought it might be helpful to create a space online where we could find each other and either join in quietly and privately, or join an organization you perhaps did not know about.
By profession, I am a licensed clinical Social Worker. I graduated from Springfield College and was introduced to Human Rights by professor Joseph Wronka. Upon receiving my degree, I had taken an oath to advocate for those for whom the socio economic system has failed to support adequately.
During my career, I have strived to uphold the oath I had taken. I have fought to unionize employees successfully in two workplaces. In each case employees, for the first time had a platform from which they could negotiate from as they attempted to obtain what was needed to perform their required job safely, humanly and with fair compensation. In one case it was a fight for basic humane treatment in the other case employees were elevated to higher standards of practice, received retirement benefits and parody with other workers doing the same work. In both cases the employers are still existence.
Sadly, I had also been part of initiating a campaign to set up the Donna Millette-Fridge Project which was an effort to advocate for improved programs in the mental health system. I had been a part of this effort, prior the murder of this young mother Donna Millette-Fridge. Donna had worked in a sister program when she was murdered by client who had been off medication and was psychotic. This young man had been released prematurely from a psychiatric hospital due to issues related to beds, cost analysis and needs to support statistics which would in turn support a theory related to the cost effectiveness of individuals suffering from severe mental health issues living in the community. Donna, like me was an advocate and sought to obtain the best and appropriate treatment for her clients. In this case the system failed and Donna’s life was taken as a direct result. In the wake of her murder, I had initiated town hall meetings with the press and a state Senator Edith Prague. I initiated meetings with state legislators and with the state body overseeing mental health known as DMHS (Department of Mental Health Services).
In later years I began to work at a place called “Spring Hill”. I worked as senior staff person for a workshop entitled “The Opening the Heart Workshop” . It was in this work that I saw power of love and what it could to do to buried rage and deep hurts. I held men in my arms who had been soldiers, who had been bikers, who had been hardened and wounded in life. I witnessed their rage and their pain. In doing so I knew that when they left that workshop they were changed men. They would walk the earth in new and different way. I knew that the buried hurt would no longer propel them into violence but rather to a conversation with friend, or to throwing rocks into a pond rather that at a person. I held women who had been raped, neglected shamed and depressed. Women who had also been soldiers but on different battlefields. I saw their rage and their pain. I knew also that they would also walk this earth differently for having seen what love and truth could do. I sat with hundreds and hundreds of my brothers and sisters from the gay and lesbian community who had faced the pain of social, familial and religious rejection. I witnessed their pain and their love. No different from any other person I had held in this workshop.
The Opening the Heart Workshop continues today in the US in New England, bi annually at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, Ny. I had been honored to host this The Opening the Heart Workshop most recently, for four years in Naples Florida. This workshop is life changing and is among the most powerful experiences I have had in releasing the inner heartbreak of life’s journey into the transformative power of Love and kindness. In fact it is on my agenda to make this workshop a recommended experience for all social workers. A larger agenda has been to invite all peace keepers to attend this workshop. There are many of you who are already out there in the world who have worked or attended the workshop and are now strong advocates for peace and justice. So beautiful!!! I will say just a few final and important things about The Opening the Heart Workshop. The Opening the Heart Workshop is not a religion, is not an organization, is not led by a guru and does not have followers. The workshop by design provides participants with the opportunity to contact themselves deeply and safely. The blended support of the staff with innate humanity that resides deep with the heart of everyone of us breaches the surface and there is LOVE. This LOVE is transformative.
How I describe what I am doing today in my life is I am meeting people, hundreds of people who, in the wake of the death of a loved one who suddenly find themselves in a new land. I walk with them, support them, and provide some guidance as they attempt to navigate through the landscape of grief and loss. I know this terrain fairly well although I know it is different for each person who arrives. Beauty, Love and Grief are among the most powerful experiences in this life which can throw us instantly out of our egos and into the vast space of our collective spiritual heart.
So here I am just another human being reaching out to the world in the name hope, peace and love! Because I believe in in the collective power of each of us who finds the courage to choose love over hate.
Finally, I wish to state that I am not aligned with any religion, I do believe in a “power greater than me” . I hold a deep desire to cultivate peaceful dialogue as we strive to solve our problems while promoting humane social systems which strive to enrich life.
LK LCSW
