The SEED Project pays tribute to a second-generation activist, Lillian Roybal Rose, whose father Edward Roybal is one of the (posthumous) recipients of this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

A White House ceremony today will honor Edward Roybal’s accomplishments as a groundbreaking Mexican-American public servant from East Los Angeles who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. When he retired in 1993, his daughter Lucille Roybal-Allard (Lillian’s sister) began her own work as a public servant in Congress where she is still serving, as U.S. Representative for California's 40th Congressional District.

Words matter. Though everything is not in words. Structured times for speaking words and listening to others give voice are a critical part of being human and of doing SEED work. Structured time for reflective silence is, too. SEED helps to create space where people can converse authentically about our life stories and look at them with nuanced care. In this video, poet Naomi Shihab Nye models a way of being and understanding, teaching and learning that resonates with SEED in the way we need to look inward before we can teach or create external change. We appreciate her voice!