“Listening is an act of community,” Ursula Le Guin once wrote. In the wake of recent fires, the pandemic, and other traumas of this time, The Hearth has offered online story circles and listening workshops encouraging local residents to offer a caring presence to those who are hurting (family, friends, neighbors, first responders, fire survivors). On Friday, June 18^th we will offer a FREE “Compassionate Listening Gathering”—a restful, restorative, connecting time for all of us to cultivate the skills and sensibilities of deep listening. In My Grandmother’s Hands therapist and author Resmaa Menakem depicts trauma as “a wordless story our body tells itself about what is safe and what is a threat.” This traumatic story keeps us feeling anxious, defensive, isolated, trapped. The work, according to Menakem, is to “metabolize our pain.” Listening compassionately to one another is one way we digest our suffering and activate our capacity to heal. This free online gathering will offer teaching, exercises, and small groups for experiencing and embodying compassionate listening. Please join us.