Women's Leadership and Revival Tour

The Berkana experience began like this:

We gather together

Sometimes under noisy highways

surrounded by painted oak trees drawn over dusty concrete and cement

The memory of the green

reminds us of what is still possible

revitalizing what remains

every day becomes a tug of faith

enriched in the moment of our lives and what is provided

shifting into a partnership between the universe and ourselves

I surrender

Acknowledging the chaos of my expectations

acknowledging an understanding of patterns like

poverty leads to war/

impatience divides us/

and love conquers all/

And so now here we are/

following the energy of the moment/

trusting the consistency of the sun rising every time/ time spinning clockwise

and the moon becoming the third eye of my night’s sky

And we surrender/

constantly renegotiating with the current/surrounded by our own thunder/

surrendering to our own availability and vulnerability/

permitting life to magically connect us and miraculously unfold/

as we frantically endure/carving our names onto dusty car windows/

we search for traces of ourselves in every vessel that promises to carry us there/ meanwhile, here we are/ a vessel so magnificent it protects us from scolding ourselves too boldly for misplacing the power within us/

our bodies choose to believe in us until it can’t/

peacefully building and breathing until it can’t/moving us from this moment into the next/investing all of our time in the moment/ so much that I become the moment/ nurturing myself/mentoring the seed from the sand up/with help from the sun and the tears from above/ sending the light straight out of heaven/

guiding the roots to ground us again/

I dream for us

Dreaming of the tide of ripples promising to take us higher

iyeoka ivie okoawo (written & performed during close of women's conference w/ Berkana inst. 6/2006)