
Standing in the Circle with Menopause week 4: Your questions answered
This week Ros answers the question: "I have incredibly supportive friend relationships with five people, but none of them know each other. It feels like individual community, because I am the link to everyone, each from different parts of my life. Does this count as a circle? How do I move from this to a true circle to stand in?” Ros explains how circles contain two key ingredients, fun and support; either of which can be a great place to start when shifting a collection of separate friendships into a true circle to stand in. When starting with fun: you could get all five friends in one place, once, with no agenda. Perhaps in a woodland cabin, a big kitchen table, or a call if that's easier. It doesn't have to be a wedding or a funeral to be worth doing. Or start with support: you could use The Hologram framework, a peer care structure from artist Cassie Thornton, where each person in a small circle holds a different part of one person's life, then you rotate. In ACER we open a Hologram space to members after being with us for seven months. Or you could do a year together: using the Twelve Trees as a shared structure, with the option to train afterwards to run your own local circle. Like Ros's Sapwood Circle, the twelve-tree group Ros started in her garden in Frome, where none of them knew each other before they began. If you are interested in joining ACER please note that applications for the October cycle close on Thursday 1st October. Please note: A change from next month: Stand in the Circle moves to fortnightly. Two episodes per terrain instead of four. The first with ACER community members who have lived it, the second with researchers and practitioners. Questions get answered as we go along. Next month the terrain is anxiety. Links: Cassie Thornton, The Hologram: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745343327/the-hologram/ Cassie Thornton, It's Too Late. Do It Anyway!, which includes a Hologram starter kit: https://thickpress.com/product/its-too-late-do-it-anyway-a-book-about-being-a-cultural-worker-in-the-apocalypse-a-hologram-starter-kit/ Submit a question: https://forms.gle/JgJaAjDRbowAcyWZ9 Apply to join ACER: https://acerintegration.com/apply-now
- Transcript