remembering to breathe

shocking as it may seem, i was not prepared for the u.s social forum. What i knew and was expecting was that like other conferences i was going to meet dozens upon dozens of briallant people from all over the country. I also expecting for the workshops to be amazing and inspiring for me and my work. But what i was not prepared for was the roller coaster and confusion of emotions i was going through as i went from table to workshop, from film to plenary, from person to person.

On my first day, at 10:30 in the morning i walked into a workshop by United to End Racism on Listening to End Opression. Sessions of listening without speaking and speaking without listening for five minutes was so hard for me, I revealed more about myself that i would ever want to and i heared more that i was capable of processing without feeling just as hurt. Then i went to the Youth Connecting workshop where we had to do the same excercise for ten minutes. After telling my story and hearing these experiences of others, i found that after a lot of these workshops, although i felt i was going through some life-changing moments, i emotionally felt heavy and confused (i'm sure the heat didn't help any).

So because the ussf is great in every way, i went to visit the healing center for meditation and even that was such a crazy experience. I'm keeping these lessons with me even after i leave the chaos of ussf, that sometimes remembering to breathe is enough to keep you stable. Just remembering to breathe.

-maya.