Guidepost
Love, Respect, & Relational
Lead with love.
As great leaders have taught us, a radical love is powerful and will reliably guide us forward.
Radical and fierce love asks us to choose connection over division, curiosity over judgment, and courage over fear. We are talking about agape, an all-embracing love.
The earth is the ultimate source of unconditional love, gifting us every second with everything we require to thrive. The land and water are to be honoured and free from harm within a reciprocal relationship. The land and water are alive and also our kin.
Love is a sacred law.
Love requires us to stay open, vulnerable, and empathetic - even in the face of conflict.
Be respectful.
Have respect for all — ourselves, those who are different from us, those we disagree with, and even those who have caused harm.
Respect does not mean agreement. It means recognizing the humanity and dignity of every person. We can engage in respectful dialogue.
Respect is another sacred law.
Be relational.
This means recognizing our interconnectedness and shared humanity. The profound Indigenous teaching of All My Relations reminds us that we are literally all related to one another, all living beings and all of nature.
We are all kin. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’, which is a deeply colonized way of thinking that leads to seperation, dehumanizing the 'other' and harm.
As we express our diversity, we are all participants in interconnected ecosystems that are influenced by each other’s brilliance, needs, challenges, and choices. Science reveals the fascinating extensiveness of our mutual influence and relationality.
This is a fabulous opportunity to get to know both our uniqueness and unity.
Restorative justice is relational justice.
A restorative approach is offered when conflict, harm and crime occur. The ownership of conflicts is restored to the parties involved through participatory, humanizing, and empowering dialogue processes. There is balanced care for all parties.
Acknowledge intersectionality.
Each person has various, interconnecting social identities — such as gender, race, class — and these intersect with structures of power and privilege. Appreciating the diversity of each person’s unique lived experiences and the impacts of systems means creating spaces and processes where all people can be seen and heard, and have their needs met.
There is a shared commitment to reduce judgment, shame and stigma, and to collectively address systemic factors related to harm and oppression.
Restorative justice is about healing and creating just relations, while honouring our diversity and uplifting our shared humanity.
We cannot get to a good place unless we go in a good way. This means coming together with respect and leading with love.
By Dr. Evelyn Zellerer
Peace of the Circle, 2026
