If You Sit Very Still

If you Sit very Still explores the territory of traumatic loss, brutality and the restoration of the human spirit. In 1994, twenty-one years after her unexplained disappearance, Lucy Partington's remains were discovered in the basement of 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. In this powerful and poetic book, Marian Partington, Lucy's elder sister, reclaims Lucy from the status of "West victim" and charts her own inspiring narrative of healing. Through deep and fierce engagement with her experience, and guided by powerful dreams, Marian finds an authentic and compassionate response. She draws on, but is not limited to, Buddhist and Quaker practices. Her inner work involves a laying bare of what needs to be faced, accepted and transformed, in order to live with less harm in the wake of human atrocity. This ongoing, everyday process of self-exploration and mindful interaction with others leads towards profound inner and outer change, and culminates in ten years of restorative justice work in prisons. With a foreword by Marina Cantacuzino, Founder of the Forgiveness Project, this luminous book offers a way out of our destructive cycles of violence and abuse.