A Conversation with JEFF BROWN, former attorney. Lead Host: J. Kim Wright and co-host Molly Rowan Leach. Highlight from the archives.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Jeff Brown did all the things he was supposed to do to become successful in the eyes of the world. He was on the Dean’s Honor List as an undergraduate. He won the Law and Medicine prize in law school. He apprenticed with top criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan. It had been Jeff’s lifelong dream to practice criminal law and search for the truth in the courtroom.
But then, on the verge of opening a law practice, he heard a little voice inside telling him, ‘stop, just stop.’ With great difficulty, he honored this voice and began a heartfelt quest for the truth that lived within him. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, Jeff was actually questing for his innate image, the essential being that he came into this lifetime to embody. He was searching for his authentic face.
As part of his journey, Jeff surrendered to his confusion and explored many possible paths. He studied Bioenergetics and did session work with co-founder Alexander Lowen. He practiced as a body-centered psychotherapist. He completed an MA in Psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco and co-founded the Open Heart Gang, a benevolent gang with a heartfelt intention. He started his own business and became a successful entrepreneur.
The most important thing Brown did, however, was the inner work. By going inside and connecting his spirituality with his emotional life, he learned essential lessons. By learning to surrender to the ‘School of Heart Knocks’ (the school of life), he found his authentic face and embraced the call to write Soulshaping. Although he resisted it at first, he soon realized that honoring the call was his best defense against sleeplessness. If he wrote, he slept. If he didn’t, he lay awake all night. This is in the nature of a calling.
Brown self-published the first edition of Soulshaping in December 2007. Titled Soulshaping: Adventures in Self-Creation, the book was sold on a street level by a homeless man in Toronto and met with a tremendous response. It was picked up by North Atlantic Books soon thereafter and a beautiful new edition, distributed by Random House, entered bookstores in August 2009. Now named Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation, this edition includes a new preface written by Brown that speaks to the grassroots energy that moved the book into the world so quickly, validating his own intuition about the book’s connective and heartfelt nature.
After writing a series of inspirations for ABC’S ‘Good Morning America’ in early 2010, and appearing on Fox News.com and dozens of radio shows, Brown wrote the viral blog ‘Apologies to the Divine Feminine (from a warrior in transition)’ that autumn, catapulting him to a greater degree of notoriety, particularly in social media. Soon thereafter, he released his first film, Karmageddon, an award winning spiritual documentary that highlights his journey with spiritual teacher Bhagavan Das. Also featuring profound interviews with Be Here Now author Ram Dass, yogis Seane Corn and David Life, and chanters Wah, Deva Premal and Miten; Karmageddon is a courageous, self-revealing, unforgettable film about spirituality, integrity, and emotional healing.
Jeff’s second book Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground was published in October, 2012. Strongly endorsed by Oprah ‘Soul Series’ Radio host Elizabeth Lesser and best-selling authors Oriah Mountain Dreamer and Katherine Woodward Thomas, Ascending is a collection of some of Jeff’s most popular spiritual graffiti–quotes, soul-bytes and aphorisms frequently shared in social media.
His third book Love It Forward was published on Valentine’s Day, 2014. In this subsequent book of spiritual graffiti, Jeff includes a number of his most popular and profound love and relationship quotes. Endorsed by best-selling authors Carolyn Myss, Andrew Harvey and CNN’S Father Edward Beck, this book also includes a series of inspirations that Jeff wrote for ‘Good Morning America.’ Also in 2014, Jeff formed his own publishing house Enrealment Press (www.enrealment.com) and signed a deal with New Leaf distribution. His fourth book- a higher consciousness love story called An Uncommon Bond—was published to rave reviews in May, 2015. An audio version—published by the Grammy-award winning Blackstone Audio—soon followed. Jeff’s fifth book, a quotes book aptly named Spiritual Graffiti, came out in December, 2015. His latest book, Grounded Spirituality, was published in March, 2019.
In this mini-interview we spoke with Anthony from Brooklyn, NY, whose work as a youth facilitator in his school is expanding to training others. He shares his opinion on what restorative justice is, and what it look and feels like.
Anthony also speaks to a workshop he attended during the conference called "Finding Power in Darkness".
Honoring the roots of restoration and transformation starts with acknowledging ancestral wisdom. Jerry Tello is Co-Founder of the National Compadres Network and Director, National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute and author of the new book, Recovering Your Sacredness
In this potent keynote, thanks to the NACRJ and RJOY Oakland for the conference in 2017 in Oakland, "Moving Restorative Justice from Margins to Center", Jerry calls out imperative question, who is blessing our children? Whose justice is this? And blends humor and precise, lived wisdom in this 45 minute keynote.
Thank you to Liane Rozzell for permissions to repost & distribute openly on behalf of Restorative Arlington. -Ed.
The Restorative Arlington initiative is a countywide, cross-sector effort to
bring the benefits of restorative justice practices to Arlington. Starting in late
April 2020, a dedicated group of 45 people who live, work, worship, teach,
study and volunteer in Arlington County, Virginia, began to explore how to
adopt restorative justice practices in Arlington’s schools, legal system, and
community contexts.
These Restorative Arlington working group members
met for more than 1,300 person-hours over six months, learning from
experts in both nearby communities and other parts of the country.
This strategic plan emerged from that work. In it, we outline the vision and
principles that will guide the Restorative Arlington initiative going forward.
It is the general framework for the more detailed implementation efforts
that we are starting to develop. We hope it informs and inspires you to
support and engage with the Restorative Arlington initiative.
Fania Davis says it openly and her words are a clarion call to all of us committed to both restorative justice and racial justice:
Just as the restorative justice community has historically failed to adopt a racial or social justice stance, few racial justice activists embrace restorative justice. Calling for a convergence of the two...(the book) urges racial justice advocates to invite more healing energies into their lives and restorative justice advocates to bring more warrior energies into theirs.
As the founder of Restorative Justice on The Rise, and as a white woman of privilege, it is imperative that I name the fact that colonization has murdered, oppressed, both seen and in unseen ways--the former an area of huge oversight by White people--and destructed lives of our Black Community outrightly and relentlessly for over 400 years. While Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of slaves in Galveston, Texas, it is not, as Noliwe Rooks, Cornell Professor, says:
The pretending we've done for centuries needs to come to a halt now. The comforts we white folks have had are on the backs of hundreds of millions, and we are responsible for repairing this egregiously long-term harm.
What can anti-racist white communities do? First, we have to name the reality of the centuries of harms done. George Floyd, RIP, was not the first and sadly not the last to be slayed. The list of lives brutally slaughtered is long and impacts millions of families and communities, and the line of harm goes down generations, 400+ years to be precise. White people have to name it for what it is. And we have to do as Fania Davis emphatically invites: we have to be Warriors and Healers alike by amplifying our voices in alliance with and for Blacks and their rights.
Secondly, we must publicly acknowledge the harms we've caused as part of a white colonized system. We must see clearly our part in the harm. This begins with inner work that is radical and urgent. This means doing everything one can to think about white privilege's impacts. And the implicit and explicit biases we live day to day. It means extensively considering what it has been like to be white in America. And what differences are present as you wake up in the morning, dress for work or school for for your day, and walk out the door. What open doors are you not seeing, that were given to you due to your whiteness? What closed doors and threats do you think are a regular part of a Black man or woman or child's day, due to their Blackness? What are the hard truths about your entitlement that you may not even be aware of? What fears do Blacks have that you do not, and what are you doing to bridge that gap of understanding the visceral, marrow-bone reality of this for our Black Community?
These questions and more are critical and urgent.
Thirdly, we must do everything we can to use the privileges we've been afforded to take action. For example, as the Founder of Restorative Justice on The Rise, it is my responsibility to find ways to utilize the worldwide network we've established together, which is comprised of Black, People of Color, White, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, East Indian, and many others representing languages, heritages, stories of culture and life perspectives, and all share the same need: to be heard, seen, known, and understood at the depths of their being. And, to use this platform and network to impact policy that is unjust to the extreme. The extraordinary people in our network are why we exist. We have a responsibility to take action that is not just words or slogans, but to commit to a Warriorship of truth and advocacy that is selfless in servant leadership and Beloved Community.
We must drop the defensiveness and listen; we must take responsibility for our own honest inquiry about the past and the present. Just because you as a White are privileged doesn't mean you are being accused of being a bad person. Let's make that clear now. Defensiveness and fragility are selfish reactions to a very large and long term line of violence and what is needed is relentless humility and commitment. For those of us white folks who have been called out, self included, we have to open, not close off, and take the opportunity to recommit to action. One of the more common things I hear from white folks are things like:
How am I as a white person responsible for racism -- I didn't hurt anyone and I have Black friends.
I'm being accused of using my privilege, when it had nothing to do with race.
I asked my Black friend about their experiences and they blew up at me saying they shouldn't have to educate me.
That's just three simple scenarios that seem very common and they need to be addressed bluntly by us as white folks. Where to start? Simply don't make it about you, but that you have everything to do with responsible action. Drop the tendency to put up defenses and open to the minds and hearts of Black communities who are rightfully calling us out individually and as a colonized, broken system.
Additionally and urgently, we must understand there are forces that are served by keeping humanity fighting and separated. The "otherization" of people who happen to have different colors of skin, who happen to identify in ways that are outside the restricting limits of what is called "normal" in Western society, people who pray to Gods that mostly white privileged men do not approve of ....the list goes on and on of the ways, by design, that Colonized structures and domination attempt to control humanity and its narratives. This must end now. In this time many are realizing that the systems in this country (the United States) and our world are not for the people, but for a few who monopolize profit over people and whose objectives are not aligned with democratic principles, even whilst saying they are. This applies also to the race question: who is it serving to keep us fighting and keep us outside of our common-shared humanity (while still acknowledging the violence and reality of the generational impacts and losses)?
The restorative justice movement as a whole has a responsibility in this moment to act. As individuals and as networks, as rising platforms online where verdant dialogues that are blunt and honest are occurring, relationships of trust can be built and rebuilt from a new foundation that activates collective ability to increase the potency of our actions.
The Circle is inherent in all of us--it is a place to build and re build trust, it's a place to do the very hard work of facing discomfort. I imagine that Fania's astute observation about people involved in racial justice not embracing restorative justice might be out of a rightful need to feel immediate results and changes. I can imagine that the restorative justice movement's inability to stand in full for racial justice might be due to our over-arching urgent need to deconstruct our own worldviews that are embedded in our DNA and systems alike--and are white, colonized, and destruction-based to anyone or anything that does not serve its means and ends.
So today on this Juneteenth in one of the most difficult years possibly experienced on this planet, we get to see full force what Thomas Merton called the "Unspeakable": the violence and murder, the broken systems, the racism and injustice directed at Blacks and at People of Color, the slaying of our meek, the targeting of young Black Men and the list goes on. We face life or death in this moment--both quite literally and symbolically as a planet. We have a choice to stand up and rise. We have a choice as restorative justice practitioners to sharpen our swords of truth while equally holding healing spaces of potency for the ability they have to cultivate seen-ness, heard-ness, and to allow true action to result.
Healing does not start outwardly, it starts with individuals and is an inner process that deeply impacts capacity to work outwardly. When we who happen to be white act with fragility, don't linger on that, learn from it, and go deeper inside yourself to identify the spirit of life within you--whether that's spiritually oriented or a tone of deep and trusted guidance, tune into that part of yourself that links to what might be called the Great Mystery--the larger cosmological context that is indeed mirrored in each and every one of us. Go from Fragility to Responsibility.
In 2017 I was in Oakland for the NACRJ Conference, and Fania closed the 4-day event with an incredibly critical invitation, which I will paraphrase from memory (and hopefully accurately), inviting "white community of practitioners in the field to find their roots, their identities, and bring those forth". That remark was critical and I to this day wonder how many people took it seriously. But here we are today, in 2020, and the question arises, how can we work as allies and accomplices for anti-racism unless we reach deeply within our souls to explore the divine perspectives that inform us, that call on us to heal ourselves, love ourselves, and to bring forth the natural healing that arises from our own wholeness and presence, even as it stumbles through the many gates of initiation and loss? Can we hold the violence and destruction, let is pass through us without averting for a moment? Can we show up as RJ practitioners and white folks with roots that extend, like Bamboo, laterally and unified, and that can bend with hardship and return to support the whole?
Becoming a Healer means, as Frankl said, "to endure burning". Joseph Campbell, himself a white person, gave us the gift of the mythological aspects of the Hero's Journey, and becoming the healer through the course of blunt willingness to be humbled on this journey. This is the medicine of planting seeds of potent action.
Restorative justice programs are offering Impact Circles and spaces for critical discussions on white privilege and to hear the urgent concerns and needs of our Black, Indigenous and POC communities. One such program is Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth which Fania Davis was co-founder, and another, Talking Peace. Restorative Empowerment for Youth are hosting youth-led online Impact Circles. Many more are occurring. Fania was and is right, we have to unify to create the balance that is needed to move forward as an empowered, humble, activated movement. We can't bridge the divide she points out without getting brutally honest and that starts with Circles that are held with conditions that cultivate truth telling and respect. They are Circles that are small to ensure voice and choice. They expand and ripple out and empower Blacks and Whites alike, when the hard work of acknowledgment and self inquiry is happening. This is the ground of unified action towards lasting change. This is the ground of dismantling sick, colonized systems once and for all, and for both visioning in, and potently enacting the world we wish to live in that honors the lives of all equally in every seen and unseen form imaginable.
I'm rolling up my sleeves. I hope that you are too.
-Molly Rowan Leach
Founder of Restorative Justice on The Rise. A People's Platform for Dialogue and Resources, Education and Connection, since 2011.
From the NACRJ 2015 Conference, Cornel West gives an extraordinary, poetic, rhythmic keynote.
From Oakland, June 2017, an interview with Rangimarie Naida Glavish on perspectives and practices from New Zealand in what is now called 'restorative justice'. This interview was an honor and was deeply sacred to us. 2017 National Conference hosted by RJOYNACRJ
Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish is a highly respected Iwi and Community Leader. Naida is currently employed as the Chief Tikanga Advisor/General Manager Maori with the He Kamaka Waiora, Maori Health, Waitemata and Auckland District Health Board.
In North America Colorado is considered one of many states progressing in restorative justice particular to coalition building that is spurred by legislative buy in. This archive feature is from 2013 and is a chronicle of the movement and its progress in passing legislation that supported the now-growing coalition and programs supported by a self-funding measure stipulation as part of the law.
This panel features the amazing Deb Witzel whose tenure in restorative justice practices and leadership in advocacy and movement building in Colorado has played a key role in where things stand today. Also speaking is Senator Pete Lee and Officer Gregory Ruprecht, both equally extraordinary in their commitment to restorative justice.
"Real Time Evolution and Crisis as Birth", from 2009
In 2009, the late and extraordinary Dr. Barbara Marx Hubbard spoke at a conference we produced with an extraordinary and devoted community team in Boise, ID. Dr. Hubbard was a candidate for Vice President and an author of multiple best sellers outlining our moment in time--crisis--as a natural element of conscientious growth.
This is a special, exclusive feature from our archives. In honor of the beauty of Dr. Barbara Marx Hubbard and her visionary and grounded evidence that we are in fact in the midst of an essential transformation: systemically, personally, globally.
To provide connection, advocacy, education and inspired action as a public service to individuals and communities seeking to proactively improve relationships and structures within their spheres and our world.
Restorative Justice on The Rise is an international live dialogue via Webcast and Telecouncil platform, held weekly, reaching an international constituency of a wide spectrum of invididuals, organizations, professionals, academics, practitioners, and beyond.
