Standing in Power, Acting with Love

[The following comes from an exercise of writing the story of my own hero's journey]

Lauren was the first born child of a force of nature and a dreamer. Her parents sent her to schools that shared their high expectations for her, and through this combination of nature and nurture, Lauren grew to care deeply about leaving the world a better place than she found it. She fell in love with learning and continued to evolve into different roles in education until she found herself a teacher. Her very first class featured students who had already found their passion, and their passion was Palestine. Lauren’s Quaker sensibilities were challenged by these students and their belief that there were only violent solutions for Palestinians, so Lauren went to graduate school to study nonviolent activism. She had discovered her passion. She easily channeled her energy into discussions with students about the power of nonviolent resistance, but she struggled to find outlets for her own activism. Nevertheless, she persisted; she used all the resources she could to learn more and get engaged, and slowly but surely she found her place in local and Quaker activist networks as a committed team member willing to speak truth to power. The connection between her teaching and her activism became evident on November 9, 2016 when she received myriad messages from both friends and former students saying that her work had inspired them to recognize that individuals have the power and the responsibility to speak up and stand up to injustice. That was when she realized she could change the world through the ripple effect of modeling love and light. And so Lauren doubled down on her commitment to being a dreamer and a force of nature. She joyfully shares her own light and seeks to articulate and serve as a catalyst for the light in others. She knows that together they can leave the world a brighter place than they found it.