Create Safe Space

02/25/2026

An Invitation to Join me and my dear mentor and friend Dr. Sally Z. Hare for a 3
Part Cyber-Series (Zoom)

Finding The Courage to Lead:
Cultivating Leadership in the ElderGarten

So learn from this and understand true values.
I who tell you have wintered into wisdom.
-Hrothgar in the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf

A Cyber Circle of Trust® for Nurturing
the Power of Leaders as Elders with Sally Z. Hare and Lori Yadin

Wednesdays: May 6, May 20 and June 3, 2026 2-5 pm ET on Zoom

We have more old people on the planet than ever before, but fewer Elders.
--Sally Z. Hare

You are the One we’ve been waiting for, and we invite you to self-discern if this speaks to you at this time in your life.

There is no particular age at which we become an Elder, but if we don’t begin the journey early enough, we will find ourselves doing remedial work at the end.
We have more old people on the planet than ever before, but fewer Elders. Elderhood is not an age or a stage; rather, elderhood is the work of naming and claiming the value of learning for a lifetime and living with attention and intention.

Ideally, we enter The ElderGarten as a young adult in intergenerational relationships with mentors who serve as role models.

Founder of the Benevolent Community Initiative, Lori Yadin envisions the leaders we need for today’s world as Elders. As she has created her dream for Benevolent Community during her ElderGarten Fellowship, Lori realizes that kind of leadership could be cultivated in the ElderGarten.

Lori is an experiential educator and leadership coach, and
Dr. Sally Z. Hare, lifelong teacher-learner, both Circle of Trust® facilitators, invite you into this space to explore the idea of the lifelong journey towards becoming an Elder and cultivating leadership through that lens.

Elders are defined differently in different cultures, but too often, in our dominant culture, it is a negative term. Join Lori and Sally to reclaim this word, this concept, as being about integrity, not age.

Connecting soul and role as Elder is integral to living life undivided, but we have to see Elders before we can be them. Elders have become an endangered species. We must commit to creating space in which we can recover this imperiled treasure, indeed BE this treasure, so necessary to the survival of the Planet.

“if only we’re brave enough to see it.�If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
-Amanda Gorman


THIS RETREAT IS FOR YOU IF: You have some understanding of the power of reflection and innerwork-- and now want to go deeper in your own inner work to nurture leadership skills through the lens of Elder

This three-retreat series invites people into time for reflection, time to hear their own Inner Teachers; time to notice their life’s experiences thus far and to find meaning; time to understand the need for Leaders to lead from the role of Elder.

ZOOM RETREAT SCHEDULE
May 6, Session 1, 2-5 pm ET: Leading with Integrity : Embracing the Journey of a Lifetime

May 20, Session 2, 2-5 pm ET: The Space Between: Noticing and Naming and Nurturing

June 3, Session 3, 2-5 pm ET: We Lead Who We Are: Taking Our Inner Selves into the Outer World

Registration cost for the 3-retreat series is $149.
To register, please
Email Lori at [email protected] to receive a registration form.

10/22/2025

I have always been one who swims deep. I am not a surface surfer - never have been. Deep thinking is embedded in my soul and I have sought out “Mentors” -
Those I have sat with like Parker J. Palmer, Sally Z. Hare, Jim Rogers,
Dave Ellis, sistah Patt Gunn, and Julius Lester…

And those who I adopted as virtual mentors like Maya Angelou, Bill Moyers, Harper Lee, and Wendell Berry.

How fortunate I feel to be traveling to Kentucky on November 8th to stand in the presence of Wendell Berry to listen to him read a few
of his beloved poems at The Berry Foundation’s Kentucky Arts and Letters Day.

Wendell Berry is 91 years old and to me he is a guiding light - speaking to the value of land, place, stories, and communities - family - caring for each other and the future we leave for our children and grands. He is a wise elder whose voice and writing have always touched my heart and expanded my mind.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1J6ZqCL92M/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Wendell Berry, one of America's most influential writers, reads one of his most revered poems "A Poem on Hope" for Moyers & Company.This week on Moyers & Com...

02/24/2025

Welcome Spring by Gathering with us in Historic Savannah, Georgia for a meaningful and hope-filled Retreat experience!

https://share.descript.com/view/MtRAqpyxQ4X

02/23/2025

02/16/2025

Writing for an upcoming book on this stormy Sunday morning…

Witnessing History: A Foundation for Benevolent Community

The work of building a Benevolent Community is fundamentally about forging trustworthy relationships, creating safe spaces through accessible and human-centered boundaries, and fostering deep, honest engagement. At its core, this process requires witnessing history—both personal and collective—as an integral step in a community’s coming of age.

To witness history is to engage with the past not as a distant series of events, but as a living record of human experience—one that continues to shape our present and inform our future. A mature community does not turn away from its history but instead leans into it, examining how past events have influenced individuals, families, and social structures. It seeks clearness—a clarity that comes from shared reflection, courageous truth-telling, and the willingness to acknowledge both wounds and wisdom.

In this way, building a Benevolent Community is an active practice. It invites us to ask essential, open, and honest questions—ones that reveal the soul of both individuals and the collective. It encourages us to pay attention to how we respond, choosing understanding over reactivity, reflection over defensiveness. This work is about more than dialogue; it is about developing the emotional, intellectual, and ethical maturity necessary for a community to truly “come of age.”

Unearthing Wisdom: History as a Guide

If we think of history as an archaeological dig, then each layer we uncover offers us deeper insight—not only into past events but into the human responses to those events. It is not history’s chronology that matters most, but rather the impact those moments had on people’s lives and the lessons they offer for today.

To do this work well, we must turn to the truth-tellers—the elders, the historians, the witnesses who carry the weight of lived experience. These are the individuals who have cultivated a deep connection with their own inner teacher while also holding space for the broader historical narrative. Their stories, reflections, and insights are not just personal recollections; they are guideposts for collective learning, offering the wisdom necessary to nurture a better future—one that upholds the virtues of justice, compassion, and shared humanity.

The Interconnectedness of Our Humanity

A Benevolent Community does not exist in isolation; it is deeply aware of the interconnectedness of all human life. It recognizes that belonging is not about erasing individuality but about honoring it within the greater whole. Such a community understands that each of us bears responsibility—not only for preserving history but for shaping the trajectory of our shared future.

At this critical intersection of community and humanity, we stand together, aware that the choices we make—whether to rise in collective wisdom or to falter in division—will define the path ahead. We are part of a spiral of history, one that can ascend toward healing and understanding or descend into fragmentation and neglect.

Reframing Our Understanding of History

History is often taught as a series of events, but at its heart, history is the study of change over time—a record of human responses to life’s challenges and opportunities. It is political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual; it is deeply personal and profoundly communal.

Too often, we examine isolated moments in history without considering the broader trajectory—how each event shapes what comes next, how ideas evolve, and how societies develop intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. By shifting our perspective, we move beyond seeing history as a fixed record and instead engage with it as a living conversation—one that invites us to be both learners and participants in shaping what comes next.

Conclusion: Holding History, Building the Future

A Benevolent Community is, at its essence, a clear-eyed witness to history—a repository of collective wisdom that is invaluable to any society seeking to build a more just and compassionate future. To witness history is to take responsibility for it, to learn from it, and to use its lessons to forge new paths forward.

In doing so, we affirm our shared humanity and embrace the responsibility of shaping a world worthy of future generations.

Join me on a Journey to Hope and Healing by engaging in an experience that will bring together the value and interconnection of history, witnessing, and truth-telling - an experience that will open a portal to individual and collective inspiration, vision,
and transformation.

"Healing begins where the wound was made." - Alice Walker, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, 2000 What can we learn from the past? Ask a Truth-Teller, a role held by one who speaks courageously, is thought to be wise, often acting as a moral or spiritual guide within the community. We invite y...

02/03/2025

The Deep Value of Benevolent Community…

A Benevolent Community is not merely an ideal; it is an ethical and practical necessity for a world in crisis.

It is a community grounded in a fundamental respect for human dignity, generosity of spirit, and a commitment to the common good. While love is often celebrated as the highest human virtue, it is, by nature, conditional - one can fall in and out of love, and the status of being beloved can be lost.

Benevolence, however, is not dependent on affection, personal connection, or reciprocity. It is rooted in the conviction that every human being is inherently valuable and deserving of kindness and care, regardless of personal relationships, shared beliefs, or affiliations. Benevolence requires no justification beyond the simple recognition of another’s humanity.

A Benevolent Community is the antithesis of an isolated, self-focused culture. In an age where individualism is often exalted over the collective good, benevolence challenges us to shift from self-interest to mutual well-being. Unlike mere tolerance, which allows for coexistence without true engagement, benevolencew actively seeks the well-being of others. It acknowledges differences not as barriers, but as opportunities for deeper understanding and growth.

To live with integrity within a Benevolent Community is to recognize that our own dignity is bound up in the dignity of others. It requires us to see our own humanity reflected in the face of another to embrace the truth that we are equally deserving of a just life, of security, of kindness, and of respect. Benevolent communities, therefore, do not just exist; they illuminate our shared humanity, expanding our moral imagination and fostering an environment where all people can thrive.

A community built on benevolence is not utopian idealism; it is an active, ethical practice. It is a commitment to generosity not just of material goods, but of spirit, time, and attention. It is a discipline of choosing compassion even when it is inconvenient, of affirming the dignity of those we may never meet, never fully understand, and never personally love. In this way, benevolence becomes a transformative force a moral foundation for civic health, social justice, and the long arc toward human flourishing.

This vision is not naive; it is necessary. The fractures in our world today - division, hate, alienation, and violence are symptoms of a deeper moral failing: the failure to recognize the sacred worth of one another.

A Benevolent Community is, above all, a moral imperative one that asks not what we feel, but what we commit to doing for the good of the world.

We invite you to join us as we journey…
For more information message me. Hope to connect soon!

"Healing begins where the wound was made." - Alice Walker, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, 2000 What can we learn from the past? Ask a Truth-Teller, a role held by one who speaks courageously, is thought to be wise, often acting as a moral or spiritual guide within the community. We invite y...