{"id":5175,"date":"2023-10-10T10:38:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T17:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/?p=5175"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T23:55:11","slug":"the-power-of-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/the-power-of-pause\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Pause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


I’m writing this on Monday, October 9, 2023, in shock about what has been unfolding in the Middle East over the weekend. This seems the moment to frantically DO something. We opted for a different path: we used the title of the blog post as a repeating writing prompt:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
Hitting \u201cpause\u201d instead of \u201crefresh\u201d on the dozens of news sites open on my computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
Reaching out to friends – friends who live and work in the region, friends whose family members live there. Friends who have worked to create spaces for dialogue with all sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
This is not the moment to plan a World Cafe, bringing together Israelis and Palestinians. It IS the moment to hold this idea, to keep this hope alive. One day, we will host a World Cafe in the region, with a local and diverse hosting team.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
This short silence, outside and inside, allows memories to surface. The story of the young Israeli and the young Palestinian who met each other in an online World Cafe, years ago. This is a story of hope. A story of humans listening. Both had never before talked to someone from \u201cthe other side\u201d. They shared how surprised and glad they were to see that the \u201cother\u201d was a human, just as themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
We\u2019d love to read what you<\/strong> come up with, using this writing prompt. Please share your responses as comments below.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div> I’m writing this on Monday, October 9, 2023, in shock about what has been unfolding in the Middle East over the weekend. This seems the moment to frantically DO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


I'm writing this on Monday, October 9, 2023, in shock about what has been unfolding in the Middle East over the weekend. This seems the moment to frantically DO something. We opted for a different path: we used the title of the blog post as a repeating writing prompt:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
Hitting \u201cpause\u201d instead of \u201crefresh\u201d on the dozens of news sites open on my computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
Reaching out to friends - friends who live and work in the region, friends whose family members live there. Friends who have worked to create spaces for dialogue with all sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
This is not the moment to plan a World Cafe, bringing together Israelis and Palestinians. It IS the moment to hold this idea, to keep this hope alive. One day, we will host a World Cafe in the region, with a local and diverse hosting team.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
This short silence, outside and inside, allows memories to surface. The story of the young Israeli and the young Palestinian who met each other in an online World Cafe, years ago. This is a story of hope. A story of humans listening. Both had never before talked to someone from \u201cthe other side\u201d. They shared how surprised and glad they were to see that the \u201cother\u201d was a human, just as themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Pause, in this Moment<\/em>
We\u2019d love to read what you<\/strong> come up with, using this writing prompt. Please share your responses as comments below.<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[686],"tags":[1129,1126,1007,1127,1128],"class_list":["post-5175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-efforts","tag-creativity","tag-pause","tag-reflection","tag-take-a-break","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6sDis-1lt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14043,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions\/14043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldcafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}