5 Basic Attitudes to Nurture When Taking Part in a Mindful Letter Exchange with Incarcerated Women

Most people join the letter exchange to do good, be of service, provide solace to someone in need. As we start the program, we check that the work of letter writing is never one of pity but one based on compassion and mutual help. No one wants pity. We all…

Prison is boring. Prison is loud. Prison will deaden you from the inside. Most of my students start their day at 4 AM. The women do all the work of maintaining the prison. This work is not paid. There are two paying jobs. One is a call center and another…

Prisons isolate and punish. There’s nothing in the structure of a prison that aims to humanize the incarcerated person. It’s all the opposite. Taking part in a letter exchange offers an opportunity for the person behind bars to be seen, to emerge from the barbed wires through their words as…

The house was dark. We meet in a 1917 house, the oldest in the neighborhood. I start the yoga class and remind ourselves to find the edge of discomfort. I add, don’t cross into pain. Stay on the edge if you’re up to it. Yesterday I had a Twitter conversation…

It’s 3:20 PM and I’m about to end my teaching day at Miami Dade College. I teach seven classes each week, about 170 students. It’s a grueling schedule. Yet/and I’m feeling blessed and alive. Today was a day of reflection. We looked back at to the start of the semester…