Hear Our Voice

Dear CSK,

Shabbat Shalom!  

First of all, let me say that I am sorry I won’t be with y’all tonight for Shabbat.  However, I am grateful to Josh Levine, Laura Rose and Ben Rose, who have prepared a wonderful Shabbat celebration for you in my absence.

Second of all, I wanted to share with you why I will be out of town this weekend.  In short, I will be leading a retreat outside Birmingham, AL.  As some of you know, I am now a trained facilitator of The Daring Way, a psycho-educational curriculum created by and from the stellar research of  U of H Professor of Sociology, Brene Brown.  You may have seen her TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability viewed by 25 million+ viewers.  “The Daring Way” seeks to provide people with the awareness of the role that shame and vulnerability play in the undoing of important parts of our lives and the ways we can learn to overcome these fundamental challenges to our most cherished relationships with others as well as us.  

After having undergone the training in July, and then engaging in one-on-one training with a senior member of the Daring Way University faculty, it has become abundantly clear to me that in addition to its psycho-educational core, these practices and teachings are essential elements and goals of our own spiritual pursuits.

The Daring Way  responds to questions like:

Why aren’t I as happy as others seem to be?

Why do I keep finding myself struggling over the same issues no matter my place or position?

Why is it so difficult to feel like I have arrived?  That I am satisfied?

From our retreat description:

“Brene Brown teaches that shame is the voice that all human beings hear that reminds us of the ways in which we feel and perhaps, believe we are not “enough” to deserve the connections we seek.  When shame acts as an unchecked force in our life, our dreams wane, our voice weakens, our persistence diminishes.  

Through a series of coincidences and timing, I was invited to lead a “Jewishly-influenced” Daring Way retreat near my old stomping grounds and we have decided to call it “The Chutzpah Retreat.”  

And yes, these are important steps in creating the foundations for bringing “The Chutzpah Retreat” to Houston in the near future.  Please stay tuned.  The fit of The Daring Way with core Jewish ethical, spiritual, emotional and historical elements is remarkable.  

Please stay tuned for updates, plans and future programs building on our tradition’s interface with this stellar model for improving the breadth and depth of our lives.

Shabbat Shalom!