Solidarity Festival with SPT and something else — The power of collective healing wisdom

María Rosario Montejo & SPT Latam team

Part of what I have personally been learning with Theory U and Social Presencing Theater, is to trust the natural, organic wisdom of living systems. At the beginning of last November, a seed began to emerge that was sustained by the field of the Latin America´s practice community. This seed was born as a gesture of solidarity with one of our colleagues, a great friend, teacher and facilitator, Colombian and co-founder of Aluna, a SPT practice group in Colombia, Alejandro Builes. Alejo is experiencing a health situation that has been difficult for him and his family

I can explain this as the the coherence of the heart action. From that genuine origin of wanting to sustain, support and contain, this solidarity festival emerged collectively. We practiced Theory U´s framework for social innovation: we co-sensed and co-created learning to deal with our egos, and the wisdom of the community emerged. In a month, in a very agile way, we were “on the air” with a specific space, 4 moments, in the middle of a hectic December, challenging the “chronological” times with the times of life …

Our magician Margarita Reyes (Colombia) put her graphic gift at service: not only did she generate the image of our festival, she also shared her generative scribing during the event, ¡¡ a precious gift !!

It was really a festival of gifts: Vivi Galdames (Chile), Ilse (Venezuela — Dominican Republic) and I, Maria Ro (Colombia), we wove the beginning, bringing the symbolism of the Christmas tree as the, Tree of Llife, summoning us to “contribute to sustain life by doing more and practicing more that which illuminates us from within, and makes us smile and relate to each other from the heart.”. We co-initiated with the shared intention of a meeting that would contribute to celebrate and sustaine life. We had a “surprise gift” that was the presence of our dear Alejo … his gratitude and vulnerability “co-moved” us … we moved, together, in that caring embrace, as the lyrics of the song shared by our Ilse says: “Take care of me” (Pedro Guerra)

And so we began to go through the U process: a short presentation of what Theory U is and how it is linked to SPT, a 20-minute dance that helped us to become aware of the individual body and the Earth-body.

Then we go with a moment that we call “SPT and Yoga”, a loving construction from the lands of the south with Patto Scott (Argentina) and Eli Cáceres (Paraguay). It started with a brief introduction to the philosophy and science of Yoga as a practice that cultivates our connection to Source and synthonizes micro and macrocosmos, while revealing the multidimensional and interconnected nature of Life. In that sense, in a very simple and natural way, SPT allowed us to make visible our individual and collective wisdom through a Stuck practice and journaling questions applied to daily symptoms/challenges.

We closed the morning resonating with the images generated by our beloved Andrea Fernández (Argentina), another magician who brought her gifts to service!

During the afternoon we continued our trip to the bottom of the U with SPT and Trauma, an experience that incorporates the wisdom of the body to integrate what was fragmented by the Trauma. Each habitant of this Earth is exposed to individual, ancestral and collective traumas. Our body is the sounding board where those wounds echo, and it is also the tool that allows us to tune into the social field, express what is present and invisible and move towards healing and resilience. In this space we received the gifts of Sonia Laura Mora (Argentina) and Frida Luz Candia (Bolivia), who wove these principles of trauma with the practice of Field Dance, a powerful practice of giving and receiving, of co-creation! !

And we closed with a moment of manifestation of that individual and collective wisdom in a space of Social Presencing Theater and Art. This space was built by those of us who are part of the Aluna group together with Alejo: Margarita Reyes (Colombia), Carol Zahner (United States) and Maria Ro Montejo (Colombia). We became aware of the individual body, of what is true in the present moment, and we allowed an artistic expression to emerge (like a scribble that reflects present sensations). Then we did the same with the collective body: we became aware of the sensations and forms when we felt supported by the Earth, by the family, by a community… we let words emerge and from the words we wove a poem from and for life.

Reflecting upon it, this experience allowed us to live the U process in our bodies, experimenting the power of intention, the power of community and the ability to generate a transformative offer in an agile way.

We are grateful to the Latino and global community that mobilized in different ways to make this a reality: the space, the contributions in time and soul, the support behind the scenes and the financial contributions.

This is how we ended, with the certainty of the presence of caring community that celebrates and helps sustain life. THANK YOU LATAM community !!