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Detroit Summer Spell

yesterday i got the honor of spending some time with Detroit Summer on the last day of their programming.

the very first time i came to Detroit was to work with an earlier iteration of this incredible youth program. this year, alumni from those earlier years decided to run the program again. they invited me in to give some emergent strategy framing on the front end. i had each of the young people identify something in nature that aligned with their energy, something they wanted to bring to the summer of collaboration and creativity. they picked things like the playfulness of monkeys, the easy transition of beaches, the calming force of rain.

yesterday we started out by going around the circle and asking each young person what they had brought to the summer program. it is so important to understand that we shape everything we are a part of.

we then did a brief writing reflection: what did i bring to Detroit Summer, and what did i receive from Detroit Summer that i want to bring forward into my life.

i’m sharing this here because we all know about going off and having magical, transformative experiences and then returning to life and feeling like the magic gets swallowed by the mundane or stressful aspects of life.

from these reflections, they wrote brief spells: i use my power of ___(insert things you brought to the program)_____ in order to generate _____(insert things you received from the program)_______ in my life.

many of the spells involved using the power of humor, kindness, listening, calm, confidence in order to generate connection, community, happiness, belonging and creative work. i was impressed and inspired by the growth of relationships and sense of community between my first session with the young people and yesterday.

shout out to zena, jon and dakarai for taking this on and doing a beautiful job! Detroit Summer forever!