Conflict as an Evolutionary Force: A Personal Journey

The times are calling for us to change how we view conflict-to learn to use it to evolve.

Conflict is uncomfortable, risky. Most of us want to avoid it. Yet conflict in the human world-within ourselves, with a relative or partner, between political opponents, between nations-operates on the same principles as conflict at the cosmic level. It is a force inherent in the universe that leads to growth and evolution.

Conflict itself is not the problem. The problem lies in how our limited understanding and emotional responses color our experience of conflict. Sharing her lifelong journey of discovery in this book, Carol Hwoschinsky offers us a shift of view-to see conflict as a doorway, as an opportunity to step beyond fear and defense into a field of possibility and transformation.

"Carol Hwoschinsky offers us the gift of her deeply personal journey and a profound re-framing of conflict. Blending memoir with insight from decades of work in psychotherapy, mediation, and compassionate listening, Carol invites us to embrace conflict as a force that can lead us toward wholeness and a more compassionate world."

-David Wick, president, Pathways to Peace; executive director, Ashland Culture of Peace