The final session has started, and our numbers are a bit smaller than they have been as some women have begun their journeys home. I am thinking of how WE LEARN is both a leave-taking and a home-coming. We leave our daily lives, homes, jobs, and arrive - some of us to a strange city and location - at a conference that, strangely enough, feels like home. Whether it's our first time or our seventh time at WE LEARN, we feel welcomed and greeted by the learners and leaders here.
WE LEARN is a place to leave behind all those things that we no longer need - doubts, insecurities, settling for less than we deserve, anxiety, loneliness. WE LEARN is also a place to come home to the best of ourselves - our strength, our determination, our competence, our creativity, and our passion for justice.
As we move through the weekend, we greet ourselves in one another, and we hold mirrors up to reflect to one another our exquisite beauty, power, and courage. We come together in celebration, in grief, in laughter, in joy, and in challenge. We build each other up while we're here so that we can return home ready to do the work of our lives, whether that is the work of home, parenting, social justice, community organizing, or learning to love one another well. The energy of coming home to WE LEARN carries us back home to our lives and sustains us as we work to make the world safer, healthier, and more equitable for women.
Thank you all for making WE LEARN such an important weekend! See you soon.
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6 comments:
another amazing WE LEARN Women & Literacy conference!!!! i am so inspired by all the women leaders who attended. A very Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the Faces of WE LEARN, Cathy, Catalina and UMass Boston students!
A truly inspirational conference. I came alone, not knowing anyone, but instantly made connections with other women. What a great time for sharing stories and ideas that empower women. I'll be back next year!!
Also, a HUGE thanks to all the conference organizers! Your time and energies did not go unnoticed... I appreciate your dedication to making the WE LEARN conference a continued success!
I came home from We Learn conference last night exhausted, but refreshed- if you attended you know what I mean. We visit, talk, share and build each other up. But we are refreshed in the process!
This year I was so vividly reminded that when we give, we receive.
It was demonstrated to me this weekend as I watched colleagues present, give of themselves and in doing so our conference, the attendees, built up those presenters. You know, many times presenters go out on a limb speaking, maybe even doing so for their very first session at We Learn. Thankfully we have become such a consistently safe space and place for them to do this. Thank you all for being the women who strengthen, affirm and build up each other.
I am in awe of what I have learned from each of you.
Dr. Kathy King
www.TransformationEd.com
kpking@TransformationEd.com
What an amazing couple of days! I always leave WE LEARN with so much inspiration...from my colleagues, and especially from the adult learners. There is such power among the women in attendance - and the writers who were chosen for publication shared their stories - and again evoked great emotion from the audience. Thanks to all of you who contributed your special talnets to this event...especially the Talents displayed Friday Night! And - blessings to our friends from Belize!
I came alone to my first WE LEARN conference several years ago (when it was at Yale), and I knew I wanted to come back, but I didn't want to come alone--even though I made some wonderful connections. I wanted to share the experience with others. I was thinking of bringing adult learners with me, and have encouraged the people I work with to write material for submission to Women's Perspectives.
But, this year, I came with some of my UMFK students who work with me in SAGES--our English club--and with my daughter,Jessica. It was a wonderful experience for us all. Just working together for our workshop was awesome, but they also went to some workshops I couldn't go to and "reported out" to me about them. It was eye-opening for us all--a shared "unique" experience that we will never forget!
I hope we can do it again--and that even more people will come!
We missed the talent show on Friday night and (sadly, also) the Women's Perspective's reading! I heard so many wonderful things about these two events!!! Next time... :) Thinking about next time...
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