Hello Friends!
I'm thrilled to be traveling around the North East this week! Two days in NYC, currently on my way to Connecticut, and soon back up to Rochester. Planes, trains, and automobiles - get me on 'em! I've been enjoying friends in the city and can't wait for a family reunion in CT.
Play Play Play!
I had the pleasure and blessing of meeting my Project Unbreakable team this week. We've worked beautifully together for over a year via the magic of the Internet, but sharing food, thought, conversations, and hugs in the flesh just really can't be beat. The five of us run an art project, website, and blog which address sexual assault and rape. Originally founded simply in the interest of raising awareness, the work includes over 2,000 portraits of survivors and has become a celebration of hope and an avenue for healing. Want to know more? Let's talk about it! project-unbreakable.org
Work work work! (Though honestly, it feels like play with these ladies)
We attended an inspiring and life-shifting workshop led by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky yesterday. Look. Her. Up. (And thank me later) She's the founder of an organization called the Trauma Stewardship Institute, which teaches people in helping professionals how to practice self-care and create sustainable practices for social change. My work with Unbreakable has proven to be consistently awe-inspiring, rejuvenating, compassion-building, other wonderful things, but of course it's also extremely challenging. Laura opened my eyes to the possibility of not, let's say, burning out/losing empathy/becoming exhausted. The best ever, right?! Seriously, buy her book. Read it, eat it up, share it, live it.
I'd write more, but nobody loves excessive blog posts and my train is about to arrive in Hartford, CT! Family fun-times, here I come.
Love to all! -L