The Best Heifer U Yet!

An amazing, emotional weekend.
Months of planning finally came to a head, as the Heifer U for NW and SW Lead Volunteers finally arrived. It went better that I could have ever expected. The people were incredible--we connected & shared, planned & laughed, danced & visualized our future in continuing this work of positive change.

Here's me with my favorite planning model.

Tracy from Phoenix & John from Orange County.

Craft Time: Visualizing our future with Heifer

Here's my collage visualizing my Heifer future
(my "cow future"? I never even think about using the word "Heifer" anymore, but in some contexts is does sound rather funny).

Great session with one of our guests, Martin Tull from the Northwest Earth Institute.

Three CRCs-Catherine from the SW, Umaru from the Mid-Atlantic, & me.

Jan, the daughter of the founder & senior adviser to Heifer.
She was an invaluable addition to our weekend.

Here's my soon-to-be co-worker, Renee. She starts in a couple weeks & then you'll have TWO CRCs for your NW region!

Catherine (from the SW) & I planned the whole weekend together, not having met until the program started. Getting to know her has been like finding a friend I didn't know I was missing.

Saturday night Jeane taught us all how to samba (or at least she tried).

Grouped around a box of tissues--a very fitting photo for our last morning together, as there was definitely some tears shed.

I like this photo, cause it shows how I felt the whole weekend: happy, but a bit blurry around the edges.
There was a lot going on in my head & heart.

Saying goodbye.

The group, from nine states.

After the program ended on Sunday, I had half a day to play before my flight. In my wonderful rented truck, I headed out to a redwoods state park. I admired the twisting bark of this tree on one stop.

It was almost painful to see all the mountain bikes on the trails & road bikes along the way & not be able to join them. So, I followed my heart & drove out to the coast.

A little friend along the trail, a North American Darkling Beetle.

And now on to the next challenge--empowering everyone from this weekend (including myself!) to ride this wave of inspiration & planning to action.
Not sure how we'll ever top this Heifer U, but we'll worry about that later.