Translations:Celebration and Mourning Circle/28/en

In general, once the talking stick is going around, we donʼt interrupt unless something happens which is outside of the agreed upon structure (we assume that once weʼve explained to everyone how it works, anyone who chooses to stay has agreed to the structure). At OWS, there were a couple of times that someoneʼs mourning or celebration sparked other people to comment - at those moments, we interrupted simply to remind people to bring their presence back to the person who has the talking stick, and not to crosstalk. Also, in another moment, a participantʼs sharing went on so long that we started to become concerned that others wouldnʼt have enough time to speak (we had 5 minutes left on our conference room reservation and about 10 more people to go). In that moment, we interrupted to express our concern and suggest that the talking stick be passed, in the interest of everyone having a voice. This kind of interruption is like a mindfulness bell, reminding everyone to help hold the whole picture.