"Multifaith Social Justice Summer Camp"

"Summer Camp" as I've been referring to this program to explain what I'm doing with my summer is only three days in and I am enchanted with this space and my cohort. The thirteen of us are sharing an old Victorian mansion perched on the hill above the creek with a sunroom, bright wood floors, rugs and worn floral sofas to sink into, and a twenty-person dining table. We've spent the past two nights devouring each other's company late into the night while eating left over ginger bars and oranges. It feels intimate already-- tooth brushing parties and cooking breakfast together. This space feels so sacred and important for me right now-- both radically oriented and rhythmically slow- where people grow food, go kayaking and bird watching, and reflect so they can act and are willing to risk arrest at protests. Several of the founders spent years with Fellowship of Reconciliation, AFSC, and Borderlinks. 

Yesterday began with a tour of Stony Point with a vigorous investigation of the strawberry patch which rewarded us with delicious fresh berries. Later we had an anti-bias/privilege training which fed a rich dialogue about mutual liberation, intersectionality, and how to hold one's own identity while truly being open to the experience of others. My cohort represents Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and America as well as Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faith traditions. In the afternoon we sat under the shade of one of the campuses giant trees (elm, maple, walnut, beech, magnolia, etc.) and had an Islam 101 class. Rabia, our teacher, hands move to punctuate all her sentences, the fringes of her shawl snapping in movement, she is a sufi mystic and draws us into the narratives and the deep beauty of the tradition. She spoke of the difference between study of religion and lived experience-- "what does it feel like to belief this in your flesh? to hold this inside of you? to have it shape the way you see the world?"

Today on the schedule was "Building a Wigwam" which I assumed was an attempt at clever naming of team-building activities... but we actually were building a wigwam. After breakfast we gathered with Great Chipmunk, an Algonquin shaman, and began with learning about the natives of this land we are living on. We received a name from the bird clan with medicine cards-- mine, the Brown Pelican. We learned some traditional welcoming and blessing songs and offered our prayers and tobacco to the Great Spirit and to the bamboo we cut for the wigwam. We spent the afternoon digging and bending and binding the bamboo while learning about the significance of wigwams and about Chipmunk's tribe. We sang more of the beautiful songs of his tradition and all laid under the 6-point star the crisscross of arcs made learning more about the spiritual understanding of his people. Then we sang blessing from our own faith traditions. 

I am so excited to live and learn with these folks.