June 29th

Saturday, June 29, 2007
Atlanta, GA

Began the day with breakfast in the civic center with Leslie and Seth.  We entered conversation on our workshop.  The first step was to share with each other what we are working on inwardly, what are our questions, what is our vision.  Our visions and ideas are so on the same page that it was like listening to myself speak from a different perspective - male, west-coast, etc.  Really amazing, and helpful for me to clarify my own vision.  This was most of the work in preparing the workshop.  After that we chose specific exercises and formats, and took up tasks.
Walking again over to the Westin Hotel.  These spaces of the forum are luxurious!  It’s hot out again.  The air is very moist, and things are still wet from the incredible storm yesterday.  We are going together to a workshop called.Navigating the Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.  This is sponsored by YES! magazine.  The first speaker was David Korten, author of the book with the same title as the workshop.  I had met David last night at the YES! magazine reception that Seth got invited to attend.  We connected strongly and he was interested in how to work with young people.
Leslie took off to explore Atlanta, and Seth and I went for some coffee.  Our conversations continued with these questions of men and women and relationships and how difficult and uncharted the territories of relationships and sexuality are.  It is very refreshing to be able to talk to openly to a man on these topics.  I am building a broader picture of Seth as a human being also.  We also talk about civil society now, and how important the work that we are doing as well as the community of young people who are beginning to develop this work in the world.  There are more and more of us nowadays.
We split from here I went up to a workshop on Saving Sacred Sites sponsored by the SAGE council on N. Mexico.  This was a panel discussion by different native americans representing the struggles to preserve their sacred sites.  They spoke first about the legal battles, being asked to define exactly which rocks or stones, or parts of the mountain are sacred.  This of course is not possible as it is the mountain itself, and the being of the mountain that is sacred.  On of the groups had just lost a three year long court case and a highway was build thru their sacred mountain, with the ‘sacred’ rocks labeled and moved to another location.  The group is still continuing to work on other projects with the vision that these sacred sites will be available for pilgrimages, medicinal herb picking, and prayer for their children and seven generations to come.
The panel then went into discussing how they were strengthening theirs and their children’s connections to the land, history, culture, and language.  They spoke of how important this was for if the children know and carry it then it still lives, and if it is forgotten by all those living then it dies.  They also spoke about how they need to pray harder.
A warrior chief spoke about an experience with a ski resort that was granted permission to build on their sacred mountain in Northern California.  The holy people had told them that the mountain was not happy with this, that it was a mistake.  This was taken to the authorities, but not listened to.  When the resort was build, and thousands of people were predicted to ski at this mountain, there was an avalanche right down the resort and into the parking lot, destroying all of the infrastructure.  The earth heals herself.
Back to the streets, meeting people for our workshop.  We take dinner in the park, nice picnic with a good bottle of California wine.  Great conversations.  Seth busts out the frisbee and soon we are playing a lively improvised game with a bunch of people.
It begins to thunder and lightning, again, and we head, exhausted to the civic center.  Naps, and writing, music, nice quiet time.  We head uptown to a concert, turns out to be very, very long walk.  We are exhausted, blistered, and dirty.  
Leslie and I have a long Marta (subway) ride back.  She helps me to see that in looking for others to ‘catch me’ when I am falling, that there are expectations I hold in that person, and that even the idea of needing someone to catch me, implies that I am holding something tight.
1:00 am, back to the shrine for showers, and straight to bed.  I fall asleep quickly, but am startled awake to the sound of knocking.  There is another guy from the conference who is staying.  Back to sleep but not for long.  At 4:30 a guy comes in starts cooking for the soup kitchen breakfast.  Feels the need to check in to see who we are.  Turns on the light, gets a bit flustered, then leaves us to sleep.  By 5:30 banging in the kitchen, setting up tables, talking to each other.  It’s time to start a new day!