Tanina Williams shared this on her Facebook page earlier in the spring – the exercise was profoundly impactful on me. Watching incarcerated men take one step forward, for each adverse childhood experience or trauma they had endured as little kids, opened up space for a deeper discussion about their behaviour, their wounds, their potential healing.

I listened to a powerful podcast in which Lyla June (a writer, wise woman and indigenous activist) spoke about the two different models of justice in the world – the punitive version and the restorative version. A lot more profit is made, perversely, from the punitive system. And a lot of anger and rage is baked in place. The restorative model of justice requires a lot more work, effort, vulnerability, but it seeks always to restore balance, to restore people and relationships to wholeness.

I don’t know if I have the skills to pursue that path. But it’s my dream – a world, a society, communities, families, individuals, restored, whole and in relationship.

And I love the takeaway from this short film: that starts with taking one step, inside the circle. One step at a time.

Step Inside the Circle from Fritzi Horstman on Vimeo.