BCI II: Spirit (Re)treat for the New Year

Ariel and I road tripped down to Simi Valley, in southern Cali, for a five-day experience at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, which is basically a beautiful retreat center complete with houses, sanctuary, ropes course, and dining hall, nestled in hundreds of acres of sprawling hills with brambling brush and the occasional cave, and some rocky mountainous areas. There we joined with 40 other folks, most of whom had done a summer program on the property, including my best friend Dena, Rebecca, and Shira, and we dove into imaginative writing class, hiked around the hills, sang, chatted, and had this absolutely incredible experience. It's this Jewish retreat space where I met the world-acclaimed passionate, exuberant, talented boy Steven. Ariel stayed at BCI to start a 6 month environmental action project called Sheva. I went to Los Angeles and stayed and stayed for two whole weeks. At the end of my trip, when I left LA, there was heavy snow cover on I-5... a majestic ending to the trip.

Rockstar sisters atop a mountain.

The all-star band trio after planting a tree.

This is a photo of a plant sprouting out of a hillside that was burned by a recent fire. There hadn't been fire there for over 50 years. Some seeds need fire to germinate, so there are now flowers appearing on the land that haven't been seen in 50 years! Sometimes we need fire in our bellies to take action. Sometimes beautiful things come out of what can appear to be destructive.