My heart was crushed at discovering that Momentous Institute's 2016 Changing the Odds Conference - Compassion: Brain Changer is already sold out.
Seriously?!
As soon as I spotted the full-page spread in the current Live Happy magazine, I was online & ready to invest mega bucks in what instinctively felt like an invaluable experience. sigh...
Never say never! My inability to get to Changing the Odds opened my hesitating heart to the importance of attending July's Festival of Positive Education, also in Dallas.
Even if I can't get to the October event, will make the opportunity to go to the Big D-based Momentous Institute to meet the minds & hearts behind the elusive conference.
People wonder why someone who's heart & soul committed to revolutionizing our culture's woeful attitudes around aging & the aged would be lured to conferences on education - aren't they the opposite ends of the aging spectrum? They beckon me because the language & energies they use is astonishingly similar to what I use in talking about connecting with the "getting up there," the elderly, the ancients.
With few conferences that address directly what draws me - nothing will keep me from my 3rd National Center for Creative Aging Conference & Leadership Exchange - I gravitate to where they use similar language. Last month's Leading to Well-Being Conference, July's Festival of Positive Education, October's Changing the Odds (never say never!). I go to be inspired.
Here are some examples of what I mean, plucked from the video that Momentous Institute released with it's announcement of this year's line-up of speakers, a look backward tied to one forward. Where they refer to children, think aging, elderly, ancients. And let the statements sing in your heart, as they do in mine!
Human life is holistic. If you separate some of the parts out, you end up with a very partial form of education - Sir Ken Robinson
Changing the Odds Conference is about bringing the best & newest & most provocative thought leaders in mental health or education & making them accessible. The vision is pushing out social & emotional health throughout the country & ensuring it gets prioritized. - Michelle Kinder
Sometimes we just need to feel a sense of community. That "no one else knows my pain" - yeah, well actually there's a few hundred people who the challenges you are facing, the adversity you're dealing with. But, you know, they're all doing it too. It all goes back to, "My actions may seem small, but they're collective impact will be great. - Kevin Carroll
One of the reasons this event, this program, is so important & unique is the pairing of the mental health with the education. I was so lost as a kid, but I can remember the teachers who actually saw me & listened to me & you know, told me the truth, that life was hard but I was a good kid. - Glennon Doyle Melton
One of the most valuable sessions I attended yesterday was with Momentous Institute's staff understanding why it's so difficult for children to articulate what's bothering them. - Jessica Lahey
You feel like you're in one of the most important roles you could ever be in. To be able to serve these kids & be there for them. - Gerry Godsey
Being here at Changing the Odds has been an exercise in amazement. - Jessica Lahey
It's not enough for us to celebrate that one child beat the odds, we really need to commit as a community to change the odds for all kids. - Michelle Kinder
Even if I don't get down to this year's Changing the Odds Conference, it's a sure bet I'll be there in 2017. And this daft & dewey-eyed dope hasn't thrown in the towel on 2016 - impossible things are happening every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment