being, it has got feelings cause it bled by the time it was cut... it didn’t go out to retaliate because it’s a tree... Now as human beings we have got feelings and we have got motives...But if we re-align our brains as human beings, ah, let us behave like trees so that we can then be able to reconcile with ourselves. This deduction made about the tree being nonviolent by nature was intriguing. It might have had to do with the fact that the issue of revenge had featured prominently in our dialogues and was an issue with which several of the participants struggled. The tree’s apparent inability to react could have also been interpreted negatively under different circumstances. The fact that the group interpreted this positively could be an indication of the effectiveness of the process and the atmosphere under which the workshop was held. While acknowledging the power of their emotions and motives for revenge, they also realized that as human beings they were superior to the tree in the order of creation and, as such, they had a moral obligation to resist reacting violently towards those perceived to be the perpetrators. Facing the Everyday Realities Further to the tenets discussed above, a few more lessons were drawn from the tree. The first one, which is related to the above-mentioned tree’s ability to adapt, was that the tree lived positively with its everyday realities. That is to say, the tree was not in denial about the realities of its situation. “V” put it this way: We have a saying that, when the tree is cut, the axe will forget but the tree won’t. It’s another lesson, that tree will always have that stump and so even us as people we live with the reality of our stumps, our branches are broken. This was in reaction to the question posed about whether the participants were finding what they had learnt at the workshop helpful in their everyday situations. They agreed that there was a positive transformation but also acknowledged that they faced real obstacles as they tried to apply lessons learnt. “M” stated it this way: Let me say that it’s relief, because it is a short term relief, because, yes at that time you will be relieved, but then you come back to the real society now; you come back and as soon as you arrive you realize that you are still part of the system... in the same environment which cut you down. After having listened to the debate, my contribution to this point was as follows: ...When we were there it was almost like a mini paradise. Problems here are not problems there, we are all in solidarity you know, we are crying with