Last weekend, I helped to lead a retreat for teens, ages 13 to 18, was down in the Blue

Ridge Mountains, and this talk really came out of that experience, and the weekend was

one of, as we do here, practicing mindfulness, practicing presence, and so they

brought the mindfulness also into movement, and then we'd go into small groups

where then they'd practice staying present and sharing with each other some

of their experiences, and listening, holding a space for each other, and the depth

of the sharing was quite beautiful, real taking that risk to speak of the real

struggles in their lives, whether it was loneliness or, you know, their body image,

addictive behaviors, feelings of depression or stress, and the safety that in

that presence they held for each other, really, really influenced me. I was just

very touched by the power of the kind of community that these teens developed,

just in a weekend, a sense of real safety and care amongst the whole group. So I was

particularly in a way touched by, you know, it's, we're in this season right now,

where it's so obvious that in our culture and this in the kind of political

adversarial tone, all the spin, all the hype, that it's all presentation, and the

contrast of being with a group of people that were young and so

undefended. I think that's what hit me that there was just the layers of

defensiveness had not caked on. The persona and the presentation had not

hardened, and it was quite, quite powerful to see. So as I mentioned, the

contrast for me last week with all the debates and everything, and then going and

being with teens who are just themselves, the realness, the courage to be

real. And also the contrast, I think that many of us probably feel and know in

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