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Detail, The Ash Singing Tree of Grace and Grit Embracing Our Pain and Purpose 
Detail, The Ash Singing Tree of Grace and Grit Embracing Our Pain and Purpose 

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,


 Are you experiencing Grace and Grit in your life? The Singing Tree Facilitators in-training of our tenth Co-Heart came up with this subject in their July 18-20th training to create the 147th Singing Tree mural which they titled The Ash Singing Tree of Grace and Grit - Embracing Our Pain and Purpose.


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Our heart is the source of both pain and purpose and embracing our vulnerability clarifies our purpose. The heart receives the universal blood that all people share. The green of the heart in this Singing Tree is the green of the earth, held by a turquoise hand and bearing with itself the profile of a human being. We are now living through a time that needs kindness, that needs love and compassion and Grace. And it is a time that needs Grit, that needs our toughness, perseverance and resilience to rise up over and over in the face of the time’s challenges. A coyotea totem of grit—showed up accidentally—by grace.





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The 60' x 40' painting was created in two and a half days through the hands of seven people as they deepened their leadership skills and creative self-confidence in the Singing Tree training. The next session is Oct. 3rd, 4th and 5th and will be both in-person (at the UTC Studio El Paso) and virtual. Space is limited. Reply to this email if you'd like more information and have fun watching the time lapse video of our process.



Stay tuned for next week when we announce our two newly certified Facilitators—and when we will talk about extending the Singing Tree work into Innovative Team Building.


With appreciation for all you do to make Creativity and Community unstoppable! Your support is needed, now more than ever.


With gratitude,

Laurie and the UTC Team

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Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,


Over nine days in May, Unity Through Creativity led seven Singing Tree® Mural workshops with the Casa Auto Group based in El Paso, Texas. Casa Auto Group was started in 1969 by Wally Lowenfield, the grandfather of current owners Justin, Luke, and Ronnie. The Lowenfields have been expanding their company rapidly in the last few years, and Casa has grown to thirteen dealerships in El Paso and in Las Cruces and Alamogordo, New Mexico.


Wally started the company with a culture of putting people first. The goal that Justin, Luke, and Ronnie have is to deepen that culture in their established dealerships and to extend it to the stores that have come under the Casa roof in the last three years.


The Lowenfields asked Unity Through Creativity to bring the Singing Tree® Mural process to Casa to reinforce this process. We took our starting point from the vision Casa Auto Group has of itself: Casa is home, and home is heaven.


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The Casa Singing Tree project began with a Lead Design Team (above) that included the three owners and twenty managers and executives. They selected the theme of trust, love, and community, designed the mural, and painted the background.


Then the five UTC facilitators took the mural to six locations for employees to add leaves, birds, stars—and for this mural, acorns, because the tree the Lead Design Team chose is the Texas live oak, a favorite of Wally’s, a tree that spreads its branches wide enough to include everyone beneath it.


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We worked with 419 other employees over the next week. These are co-workers who in many cases had never laid eyes on each other before, as their shifts and departments gave them little chance for contact. These are people who had little idea of what is going on inside the person working alongside them. These are people who did not know that many others in their department or their store were facing the same challenges and sorrows that they are and share the same hopes and dreams.



The 442 people at Casa Auto Group who created the Casa Singing Tree of Trust, Love, and Community experienced the depth of the connection they have with each other, many for the first time. They began building the wider community of Casa Auto through stepping outside their routines and seeing each other not as sales people, as service people, as accountants or managers or owners—but as human beings. They had an immediate experience that their contribution to the mural and to Casa Auto Group is unique and essential, that each one has something to give that only she or he can give.


At Casa they say: Casa is home, and home is heaven—and for the people at Casa, heaven is holding hands, creating connections with each other, building their community on a foundation of love and trust.


Laurie and the UTC Team

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Durante nueve días en mayo, Unity Through Creativity impartió siete talleres de murales del Árbol Cantante (Singing Tree®) con Casa Auto Group en El Paso, Texas. Casa Auto Group fue fundada en 1969 por Wally Lowenfield, abuelo de los actuales propietarios: Justin, Luke y Ronnie. Los Lowenfield han expandido su empresa rápidamente en los últimos años, y Casa Auto Group cuenta con trece concesionarios en El Paso, Las Cruces y Alamogordo, Nuevo México.



Wally fundó la empresa con una cultura de priorizar a las personas. El objetivo de Justin, Luke y Ronnie es profundizar esa cultura en sus concesionarios establecidos y extenderla a las tiendas que se han unido a Casa en los últimos tres años.



Los Lowenfield pidieron a Unity Through Creativity que llevará el proceso del Arbol Cantante a Casa para reforzar este proceso. Nos basamos en la visión que Casa Auto Group tiene de sí misma: Casa es hogar, y el hogar es el paraíso.


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El mural del Árbol Cantante de Casa comenzó con un Equipo de Diseño, compuesto por los tres dueños y veinte gerentes y ejecutivos. Escogieron el tema de confianza, amor y comunidad, diseñaron el mural y lo pintaron.


Cinco facilitadores de UTC llevaron el mural a seis lugares para que los empleados agregan hojas, pájaros, estrellas y, para este mural, bellotas, porque el árbol que eligió el equipo de diseño principal es el roble vivo de Texas, uno de los favoritos de Wally, un árbol que extiende sus ramas lo suficiente como para incluir a todos los que están debajo de él.


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Las 442 personas en Casa Auto Group que crearon el Árbol Cantante de Casa de Confianza, Amor y Comunidad experimentaron la profunda conexión que tienen entre sí, muchos por primera vez. Comenzaron a construir la comunidad más amplia de Casa Auto al salir de sus rutinas y verse no como vendedores, personal de servicio, contadores, gerentes o propietarios, sino como seres humanos. Tuvieron la experiencia inmediata que su contribución al mural y a Casa Auto Group es única y esencial, que cada uno tiene algo que dar que sólo él puede dar.




En Casa dicen:Casa es hogar y hogar es el cielo—Y para la gente de Casa, el cielo es tomarse de las manos, crear conexiones entre sí, construir su comunidad sobre una base de amor y confianza.


Laurie y el equipo de UTC


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