Institutions are not the only social structures in our lives. Our families, communities, and other like minded groups are also structures. In many ways, these are the most powerful structures in our lives and it is very difficult to change them also. These are the structures tasked with serving to anchor our very sense of who and what we are. These structures hold immense emotional, psychological, physical, and intellectual power in our lives. Circles make it possible for these types of relational structures to transform, to open to change, to shift collectively ideas of what it means to be a person, of how one loves, and how one treats those who are beloved along with those who are, well, not so loved.

Circles are immensely powerful creations that support the transformation of conflict within these relational structures and create possibilities of freedom when in the contexts of communities otherwise stultified by the relations of power in which they have to operate. Over two decades of practice, I have observed many instances when communities are strengthened and become creative forces for the development of generative innovations that support peoples’ well being. In this instance, in the presence of strong relationships based on values and built on practice of those values.