As week two is coming to a close, I must say magnify just might be the perfect word to describe the change that I have seen within myself, my fellow conference delegates, and Recrear as a whole. I believe this magnification will continue to happen so fluidly and progressively that by the end of next week, the 14 of us will finish the conference stunned at the transformation that has occurred.
Having met and learn from so many people in the past weeks- Art of Living teachers, each speaker in our speaker line up, and each fellow conference participant, I have an overwhelming amount to say but very little time to do so due to our jam packed conference schedule.
One principle question that has been racing through my mind over the past weeks is how the 13 delegates and I are going to pull off situating and expanding Recrear in a means that will prove beneficial to inspiring confident youth as agents of change in their communities. What is the Recrear’s place in the world?
I know that I have certainly gained confidence over the past few weeks. I have learned that within myself is the energy to continuously give through a means that will ensure I live my life as a constant agent of positive change. The speakers and panelist (listed in a blog entry below) have left me with an overflow of advice and information that will ideally contribute to my performance in my task group as we work in this upcoming week to hash out yearlong strategies and activities for Recrear.
The following is a reoccurring trend of this conference for me. Throughout both week one and two I was filled with much self doubt, much doubt about the future of Recrear and an infinite amount of questions. This I’ve learned is all fine and dandy as long as I confront this doubt for what it is and figure out a way to overcome it. As one great Guru tells me, all doubt comes when you know you can do something. You never doubt when you know you can’t do something. At the close of each week what has filled me is a sense of stillness and excitement. The potential for Recrear and its members to grow seems endless.
It is ingrained in me now to not see things for their face value. To say that this world, and specifically the area of development, is complex is almost an understatement. I know the Recrear team will take this complexity and swim in it, then turn it on its head to work within it. The end result will be an operation that creates a positive impact that is rippling.
I would love to describe to you in detail all the complexities, questions, and realizations I have been exposed to in last week but time is of the essence. I will leave you instead with a few of the phrases that have inspired over the last week:
“You have to look beyond the label sometimes to see what’s in the bottle” – Ian Smillie
“Give a hand up instead of a hand out”- Kathy Wong
“Don’t duplicate good people doing good things. If everybody wants to do good things in silos, you are going to do more harm than good.” – Japman Bajaj
“When we find our similarities, the differences can be put into place and we can push our relationships to the next level.” – Keenan Weller quoting a novel
Best wishes always,
Gillian
