This community call will focus on embracing the world through our voices, unpacking the fine details of the creative writing process as a meditation, as an offering to our sacred world.

What happens in the midst of mass tragedy in the moments when the bombs strike and life breaks open? These unspeakable horrors are both unbearable and often hidden from a witnessing eye. Is it possible that even through the suffering and death, we can give voice to the words calling forth from these moments? How does the “I” sense, attune to, and communicate with – and within – these situations? In this conversation we will explore the possibility that consciousness, intimacy, and a field of awareness can be accessed through the power of the word. As activists, spiritual practitioners, meditators, we each possess a distinct voice that can enter the collective experience, embrace compassionately those who endure silent horrors, and give voice to the longing we all have for collective healing and restoration as these tragedies continue.

In this community call, we will explore:

• The creative process of witnessing as inspiration for writing poetry and other experimental forms of creative writing during times of crisis
• How a frequency of unconditional love can inspire the poetic process
• Foundational practices and exercises that can help expand one’s experience as a writer at any level
• The delicate balance of bringing one’s voice and awareness into periods of crisis and mass destruction, while sustaining one’s own joy and lightness as a gift to this process
• Trauma-informed writing: Engaging with traumatic events and those impacted by trauma with authenticity, self-awareness, and sensitivity

To prepare for the call, please read Lori’s poem “Witness: Target = Rubble”

Lori Shridhare is a director of communications at Harvard Medical School. She is a freelance journalist, editor, and science writer specializing in human rights and medicine, collective trauma, and topics in bioethics and anatomy. Her writing has appeared in Harvard Medicine magazine, Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, The Harvard Gazette, MIT News,, Tricycle, The Brussels Review, The Seventh Wave, Psychology Today, and Merion West. Lori has been collaborating with Thomas Huebl on writing and other projects since 2018,  including a recently launched blog series for Psychology Today called “Attuned: Collective Healing During Times of Crisis”. She lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Kosha Joubert is the CEO of the Pocket Project. She is an international facilitator, author, coach and consultant specializing in sustainable development and collective trauma healing. Growing up in Apartheid South Africa shaped her lifelong dedication to bridging divides and fostering intercultural collaboration.