this morning was so cold! after walking on the sidewalk in bare feet in durham this weekend, today was barely bearable. the education team met at the horton house, the highest house on the highlander land. it was my first time there, and the view from the porch over the shadowy ghost edges of the appalachians was incredible. i didn’t mean to eat a glazed donut for breakfast, but roberto offered it to me, and that fat shiny halo looked so scrumptious to my sleepy self.

we came together to plan the intergenerational new leadership institute and to prepare for the u.s. social forum southeast regional meeting in atlanta this coming weekend (roberto and i are repping). we looked over notes from past meeting, set our goals and some basic how-we’re-getting-there. i enjoyed mapping out organizations in the deep south, appalachia and immigrant communities we will be working with on this. elandria and i asked the group for some thoughts about protocol and reflections about what it means to rep highlander. we made a neat, clear list of expectations (my favorite kind). spent the late afternoon with elandria and susan filling our hungry brains with some more orientation.

the highlights of my evening were a conversation with jonathan (because we haven’t talked for days) and a completely unexpected conversation with wendi o’neal (because we haven’t talked for years!). wendi o’neal is a breathtaking wonder of a woman. she was borne to highlander as a SNCC daughter, and she was the coordinator of the youth program when i first came here years ago. though i haven’t seen her for years, she has been so present in my memory, from her warm wisdom, to her tart humor, to her all-inclusive facilitation. when wendi gets a room singing, the walls crack open and sunlight just pours in.