Ripples from Peace Lake

We are in deep summer down here in New Zealand with long days on the coast and sand in the bed at night.

And its around this time we get to meet some real interesting folks blown off course from the well trod migratory path to Europe, coming DownUnder to swim with dolphins, watch pods of giant sperm whales or drink our cheeky young wines.

On their way from doing all three, but primarily the latter I suspect, mediators Eric Galton and Kim Kovach of Austin, Texas stopped by for a chat on a hot afternoon before boarding their magic bus for home.

Both are fellow travelers and are the same, same but different to those mediators around the globe who love their work and go about it with a quite confidence.

Eric's recent book Ripples from Peace Lake is a gentle miscellany of beautiful short pieces for the jobbing mediator... hard working chapters like 'On Assumptions' and 'On Patience' compete with dreamy summer afternoon reads like 'On Faith and Hope', 'On Change and Reinvention' and 'On Words Mediators Hear'.

'On Loneliness' Eric comforts us thus;
"...So the next time your mediation ends, everyone leaves at 1.00 am and that lonely feeling creeps under your skin, remember this essay and know you are not alone.
Thousands of your colleagues understand what you are feeling. And, if you listen carefully and listen very, very hard, we are cheering about that play you made in the extra innings that made resolution possible..."

Read a review by Tracy Allen "...in an Applebee's in Sturgis, Michigan, the journey began. The final game of the Astros-Braves World Series Divisional Championship played in the background. With a seemingly bottomless marguerita, I plunged into what would become a mediator's oasis....to speak of things mediators intuitively understand but often do not vocalize; and to remind us that in this world of endless troubled times, we as peacemakers have an obligation and opportunity to make a difference" ...read more