We attended a Vietnamese New Year party last Saturday night. The food was awesome and our hostess made sure that she made plenty of dishes without pork. Now that’s hospitality and inclusion! As we talked about rituals and traditions I learned that if you think good thoughts about good things on the New Year, then that is how your year will be. And, the opposite would also apply, according to our hosts.

We are busy planning our 2012 conference and travel schedules. I will be in the Washington DC area Feb. 5-12 to participate in JDAM 2012 Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill and am speaking at several locations in Washington DC. I will be in Los Angeles Feb. 28 and 29 keynoting the Los Angeles Jewish Community Inclusion Conference Feb. 29 and speaking at other events.
I will also be in the Baltimore MD area the first week of May.
Please contact me to chat about how we, at Inclusion Innovations, can partner with you to turn your good intentions into action!
Happy 2012 and warmest regards,
Shelly Christensen
Founder Inclusion Innovations LLC
Co-Founder Jewish Disability Awareness Month

More of the same, that’s for sure!

I was thinking about analogies for inclusion to help people understand the intentional nature of change thinking and how to really get results. If you think that becoming an inclusive congregation is strictly intuitive, and happens without much dedication and effort it’s time that I fall back on something I know as well as inclusion, maybe better, as an analogy: Losing weight.

For those of us who are Jews we begin our accounting of what we might have done to hurt others, to hurt God, or to hurt ourselves. At Rosh Hashanah the Gates of Heaven open so that our prayers might be heard by God. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we pray for forgiveness more fervently than we do all year long. During the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we ask forgiveness from the people around us: our children, our parents, other relatives, friends, colleagues. In a way, we are shedding our coats of sin, leaving ourselves as clean as a newborn baby.

But being human means we don’t stay in that state for long.

My friend Stephanie Sargent died at the age of 49. She was Ralph’s wife, and Daniel’s and Jacob’s mom. Stephanie was someone you could count on. She was a fierce Mom, Preschool Teacher, Vocalist, and Book Club Facilitator.  She was funny, and she stood by you to hold you up with her presence and her words when you needed a friend you could trust. So when she died recently of complications from a stroke her very large circle came together to mourn and to support her family.