Part 2: Youth Revolution Starts Here

I can still feel the ear to ear grins, the yelps of excitement as our extended family lept over the coastal waves on our way to placing ourselves on the path of the pilot whales off the coast of Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton; magical moments floating in the midst of prehistoric creatures rolling in and out of the sea, blessing us with their existence.

The meeting of the whales was part of our trip to Cape Breton on the first weekend of Alison’s arrival. Theo, Maya, Alison and our friend Nancy drove to Pleasant Bay where we dived into a weekend of meeting new friends, visiting spiritual places and inhaling the natural beauty of Cape Breton. Our trip was organized with the help of Joel Burton, a past participant of the Grenada Service Learning trip. Joel traveled to Grenada with a group of students from St. Francis Xavier University to take part in a cross cultural immersion program a few years ago. Upon hearing about Alison’s trip to Canada, Joel jumped head first into raising funds for Alison’s trip. Joel’s mom, spear headed a community fund raising initiative within their community of St. Margaret’s Village, Cape Breton and raised over $300 for Alison’s journey. Joel and his family also organized our weekend agenda and we found ourselves meeting grass roots “salt of the earth” people in the form of Joel’s extended family. This included mom and dad, aunts and uncles, and his past high school teacher who introduced us to his ninety year old father who was in Grenada during the Revolution in the early 80’s. There were many stories remembered and shared of revolutionary times both in the Caribbean and Latin America. We departed our new friends with a renewed sense of global community.

That weekend we also inhaled the gentle mindful air of the Gappo Abbey; the Shambhala Buddhist Monastary that sits on the northern cliffs of Cape Breton. We visited the Abbey and walked amongst the wild cliffs of Atlantic coast, inhaled the silent stillness and walked to the Stupa of enlightenment laying down our gifts of stones and flowers.