02/11/2026
This e-blast should be easy- but I find my usual flow far away. There are so many mixed feelings: joy, awe, sadness, letting go, opening to new possibilities, and on and on and on.
We did it. What a simple way to express something so complex, so huge. WE DID IT. We graduated. We finished this part of the work. We had our last meeting as a program.
This first cohort was perfect of course. I really can't imagine having done this with any other group.
We had 5 days together this time. Ending with a beautiful graduation ceremony shared with friends and family, and on zoom, with North Americans who managed to wake up in the middle of the night to celebrate with us.
This time the group truly led the entire week. We had topics (which they didn't know ahead of time) and a lottery for who they would lead with. I smile to think that there was no hesitation in their yesses. Yes, to what they would take responsibility for, yes to who their partner was. We had a week of closure and such creative, meaningful, unique processes each morning and afternoon. We cried, we laughed, we danced, we spoke, and we celebrated each other and this profound time that we as a group traveled together. We acknowledged the reality that we humans are capable of so much more besides hate and violence. We are capable of learning, of staying, of listening and opening our hearts and eyes to other realities than we have known. And in that process, we are capable of creating a new world. REALLY.
I think that I will give you quotes from our speakers, Noa an Israeli Jew, and Sayel, a Palestinian living in the West Bank. And one from the whole group. They say everything that needs to be said.
NOA:
'Being here for three years has been an endless opportunity for discovery.
Some discoveries were difficult and painful; others were moving and profound.
This group agreed to hold my despair, my pain, and my anger — without turning me into “the angry one,” or “the hopeless one,” or attaching any label to my name.
Here, it was possible to be both and and and and — without labels — to be complex, layered, and changing, like life itself.'
'Today, we stand here and say goodbye to our group, to the beloved amoeba that it is. But we know we are not saying goodbye to this great spirit called RA.
A spirit that will scatter the seeds — which are us — throughout the world.
And one day, they will sprout.
At home, in our communities, and in places we may not yet be able to fully imagine. But we promise you: they will sprout — perhaps in places that today look like desert.'
SAYEL:
I arrived carrying more than I could hold, anger that had no place to land, grief that had been pushed aside, and a body that learned to stay silent so I could keep going. I wasn’t disconnected from my emotions — I was simply living above them.
Here, I learned that strength doesn’t lie in constant holding-on, but in the ability to allow confusion without running away. That anger is not an enemy. That grief is not weakness. And that joy doesn’t come from obligation — it comes from safety.
Radical Aliveness didn’t teach me how to change — it taught me how to stop resisting what already exists. How to be with myself without cruelty, and with others without disappearing.
I leave this journey with one thing absolutely clear:
Life is not meant to be managed — it is meant to be experienced.
Presence is a responsibility.
And choosing to be alive is a daily act of courage.
And the group:
For three years and under the shadow of war- there were so many reasons to leave and we stayed. We discovered that we changed in ways that we never could have imagined.
We are finishing a program that at times we thought would never end. Yet we will always be part of the language and of the borderless people brought to life- called Radical Aliveness.
HALLELUJAH!
