The ALICE COOK leadership group

Yesterday, all our union troubles seem NOT so far away...

I had the great honor of being able to learn at the feet of a "Living Legend" named Ida Torres. Sister Torres prefers to be called: "A worker for workers". Give yourself a blessing and google her if you don't know her. 

She asked us if we woke up on Mars tomorrow and could only use one word to describe ourselves what would it be. Our intimate group of seven union women activists had two minutes to think. The words we choose were: Giver, Listener, Strategist, Talker, Alive, Connector and Mother. Then Sister Ida asked us had we ever thought of ourselves as a Worker???

Our other facilitator Amy Dietz who is an amazing Lecturer in Labor Studies asked us what leadership means to us. We all shared many meanings but what stood out the most was putting your "passion to work" one person at a time. Eye-to-Eye, Nose-to-Nose, Woman-to-Woman is the path to engage the soul and find common-ground to begin our union journey together. This is a hard and slow process in the beginning but the work will go faster and get easier later because the relationship is planted on Firm Fertile Ground.

I will take two words to describe our first day of leadership class: Vulnerable and Authentic.

Amen