Saturday April 4th I went to this awesome one day retreat/conference focusing on sustaining ourselves for a lifetime of service at UC Berkley. Spronsored by the Shinnyo-en Foundation and the Cal Corps Public Service at the UC, the reateat was called "The Soul Food for the Student Activist."
The keynote address was by a strong woman named Shakti Butler, who both her and her husband, Rick Butler, make amazing documentaries. She touched on everything from what our passion to be involved with social justice is to reflection to environmental racism. She is truly inspiring.
Then, after some Brazilian dancing to build community, we went into our first of two workshops where I listened to a former Professor at Berkley named Michael Nagler, talk about the power of meditation and non-violence in our work (www.metta.org for meditation). For the second workshop, I attended a session called "if you are not with me, you are against me." This was interesting in connecting and disconnecting our positive passions with the ways our work sometimes plays out negatively.
At Berkley, it was great, everyone assumed I went to their school and when I told them I went to USF, they were surprised and interested and I got to represent the city in such a different and colorful place at Berkley. It will be weird not to be a student at USF anymore, though I am sure I will still try to find ways to stay a part of the community.
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