LIFE STORY CIRCLES is a new project developed under the Mikdash Membership Experience Team. For a description of the Mikdash Team’s goals that Life Story Circles strives to meet, see below.
The purpose of Life Story Circles is to:
1. Create new opportunities to develop close, authentic, meaningful and enduring relationships with other members. The project will offer:
- a place for each person to feel safe, seen, welcomed and valued
- the opportunity to tell one’s personal stories, be heard and witnessed in a protected space
- an easy way to meet and know a diverse group of members and discover commonalities
- a sense of belonging and connection
2. The primary purpose of nurturing individuals and relationships is a good in itself.
There are also potential secondary benefits:
- appreciating the life stories of self and others, as well as story as a path to meaning and connection
- learning an enjoyable way to practice respectful, compassionate speaking and listening
- preparing the ground for more difficult dialogues across differences and divisions
- supporting member engagement in the shul
Although the process is meant to be simple, engaging and fun, there is also a spiritual base to the model that might speak to some members. Story shared in relationship with one or more others who can witness and hold what is shared can be deeply connecting, meaningful and healing. It offers the possibility for real talk about things that matter. By supporting heart-oriented speaking and compassionate listening that holds neither agenda nor judgments but offers sincere presence, curiosity, and appreciation, Circles can become containers of sacred relationship in which I-Thou meetings occur.
“All real living is meeting,” wrote Buber, referring to the dialogue of the “I-Thou” meeting with another vs. the transactional “I-It.” That is the higher purpose of providing ample, uninterrupted time and space in which narrators get to tell what needs to be shared openly to others in the Circle. Narrators can reflect on what they’re saying, meet themselves, discover new insights, and even alter their views. Listeners also learn about themselves and are enriched by what they hear and by the gift of presence they’re giving. Both sides can be changed by the dialogue and even experience an opening to something greater.
The Mikdash Membership Experience Team was created by Rabbi Chai in response to the pandemic. As described on the CNS website:
Recognizing that creativity is required during the Coronavirus pandemic to keep our synagogue community connected and thriving and our members engaged, the Netivot Shalom “MIKDASH/ Membership Experience Team” serves to create positive member experiences. For the holidays and throughout the year, the MIKDASH/Membership Experience Team will (a) build relationships within the community, (b) develop new leaders, (c) create new “experiences” for engagement, while traditional services and gatherings are suspended and (d) establish a structure for building positive member experiences that will continue beyond this pandemic