What's Happening in December...

Happy Holidays everyone! This month we will have five kids heading home who range from age 18 through 26. We are looking forward to finding ways to enjoy family time while we are safeguarding our health.
 
ADR presentation -- I will be giving a speech to RLI Design Professionals as part of a training course on the 16th of the month on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). I’ll be talking about dispute resolution through negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, arbitration, and litigation and giving case studies of how a business and a family resolved their conflicts.

Wrapping up the fall semester/Planning for spring -- I will also be grading final papers for the ADR class that I teach, closing out the semester, and planning for the Spring 2021 Mediation class at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia law school.
 
Share your story -- You will recall that I contributed a short piece, Five Financial Tips When You Are Facing Divorce, to a book on pandemic relationships that was published in May of 2020. The book was pulled together very quickly by the wonderful Michael Lang and Peter Nicholson. They will be soliciting contributions in early 2021 for a new book. The idea is to present stories of how people have dealt with conflicts exacerbated by the stress produced by the pandemic. I would love to write about a story of resilience for my contribution that I will submit! I am happy to interview you and tell your story so please let me know if you have a story that you would like to share.

Reflective practice group -- I joined a reflective case consultation and study group headed by legendary mediators Woody Mosten and MIchael Lang. My first meeting was in early December with a small group of mediators from all over the country. Our mission is to learn from our colleagues and our facilitators. Our guiding principles are: (1) we are committed to learning from experiences through self-examination and (2) learning comes from self-exploration and self-discovery. And my goal in joining was to raise my conflict resolution strategies and skills and help my colleagues improve as well.
 
Goodbye 2020 --  2020 has been a year like no other. I think we are all ready to say goodbye to 2020 and to welcome a New Year and a new beginning in 2021. I am finding inspiration from the following uplifting quotes: Abraham Lincoln said that “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” Helen Keller said to “resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” Buddha said that “no matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.” Last, the Dalai Lama said to “be kind whenever possible; it is always possible.”
 
Happy New Year and can't wait to see you, 2021! 

---