Yesterday we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Sally Mahé .

Sally Mahé is a founding staff member for United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots interfaith network dedicated to promoting enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, ending religiously motivated violence, and creating cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Sally came to this work from the lens of social justice and democracy building. While teaching in an inner-city high school, her passion for teaching civics and democracy was sparked. She soon saw that the spark inside her students – and in all of us – had something to do with the Divine, and so obtained a master's degree in theology and spiritual counseling. She came across the term "spiritual democracy" and felt a bolt of lightning run through her. Her passions for democracy and spirituality – and for nurturing the “deeper values of democracy” – came together in the United Religions Initiative.

We'll post the transcript of the call soon, but till then, some of the nuggets that stood out from the call are below!

• What is spiritual democracy: One's intention to be a participant in the world and to give from the heart of who they are.
• Everyone embraces a life giving spirit where people tap into a part of themselves that yearns to build a better world. We are learning to speak about the spirit within us and share that and come together. That life giving spirit and intention to heal the world is very common across the world.
• Notice what is given as you set up on a high ideal, something that seems beyond your capacity or understanding. Notice who comes to you.
• If you invite people and honor them and support them they will take leadership.
• At URI and in the cooperation circles, we don't introduce people by their title or by their differences but we create opportunities for people to share who they are as people.
• We are being what we want to become.
• How do you listen? How do you receive? How do you act on the guidance that you receive?
• Give space in your life to listen. Walk, look out the window, reverie is a way of being, allow your mind to wander in spaciousness...we need that space for the quiet thoughts to emerge or to re-emerge.
• Taking a step into a new place is uncomfortable. Allow that to be ok. Let discomfort accompany you. Don't be afraid.
• The heart of spiritual democracy is a flame inside us that burns and we are yearning to build a better world but we have to connect with that ourselves first and not get carried away by the worries created in the mind. Keep coming back to the light.

Lots of gratitude to all the behind-the-scenes volunteers that made this call happen!