Youth Leader Samra Writes About Her Experience
MOSAIC. M is for mutual respect, don't put me down and don't hurt me. O is for openmindedness, see me for who I am and don't judge me. S is for self-respect and A is for attitude, you gotta love yourself and stay positive. I is for individuality and C is for community, when we come together in the places we live. Or maybe its we gotta come together. COME TOGETHA. riiiiiight now. ova me. Those are the Mosaic values, and they are certainly values to live by. There's so much to say about it, it's one of those things where so much happened that trying to somehow capture it with words seems so defeatingly meaningless. I guesssss to sum it up: amazing people, magical woods, beautiful children that SERIOUSLY exhaust you, peace is possible, glitter and bubbles and appreciation of weirdness or rather "individuality," mixing it up. Basically just everything good and true and whole and beautiful about the world buzzes around on the backs of the fairies that drift about in the magical mosaic woods and you see it all in the reflection of childrens' eyes. But don't get me wrong, that stuff's HARD. It is a weeklong therapy session and a lot of these kids have been through all sorts of things in only 9 or 10 years of living. And so they sometimes start off making your life hard, miserable, but you know that you've done something SO meaningful and profound, you've actually made a difference when you see those kids opening up, their shell cracking, you see that sparkle in their eyes, they hug you or hold your hand for the first time, cry when they say goodbye... And then you notice that you've changed and opened up and started sparkling. All of that positive energy and love and support washing over you fills you up and makes you stronger and you wanna pass that on. Because the world truly IS a beautiful place.