Selfless Acts of Love - Holding Hands

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,

There is a reason that, when the Beatles sang “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, the world erupted. Holding hands is the archetypal, most fundamental act of selfless love, and the world was yearning for selflessness and love in the years following the tragedies of the Second World War.

Now we are at a moment in history when the humanity living in each one of us yearns once more for selflessness and love, when people all over the globe are reaching out for the hands of others. Showing people that it is safe and nourishing to take the hands reaching for theirs is the purpose of the Singing Tree® Project.

It is not only human hands that are reaching for ours: it is also the hands of Nature. Nature reaches out to give us what we need; it is also reaching out to receive what it needs from humanity. A painting of this mutual dependence and the possibility of this selfless act is captured in the 2019 Lemon-Cherry Singing Tree of Peace, designed and executed by grade school students in San Francisco.

The conflict over whether to choose a lemon tree or a cherry tree was resolved when the students saw that life is not an either-or proposition: both things were possible. That embrace of unexpected possibilities, that reaching out from one heart to another, is symbolized by the trees holding hands. 

People and Nature holding hands is demonstrated in this year's Branches to Roots project. Singing Tree® Mural Facilitator Fernanda Lugo created a funny video of this NOAA-funded project, which has the practical results of propating native trees through sucker growth. Part of the project was creating the Desert Willow Branches to Roots Singing Tree of Propagation and Regeneration 

You are invited to take another hand we are reaching out to you and join us on Wednesday, June 11, at 6 pm MT, for a free webinar, From Turmoil to Teambuilding: Three Outrageous Keys to Accelerating Trust.  As we develop our Center for Innovative Team Building, we have already started taking the Singing Tree® Project into corporate settings.  Employees, management, and owners have been enthusiastic about the results they are seeing.

Let us take the hands reaching out for ours—our world and our collective well-being depend on it.

Laurie and the UTC Team

Our True Hearts

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,

We are seeing authoritarianism increase rapidly across the world today: in the United States, in Poland, in Germany, in Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, India, Hungary, Holland, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco, Algeria…among other places. In the United States, a national police force is emerging that keeps itself masked and refuses to show identification. People are arrested on the streets without warrants. Citizens and non-citizens alike are deported without due process.

What can we do when compassion and respect are vanishing and brutality is taking their place?

Eight-year-old Meredith Miller knew the answer: that the whole world could make a painting together. She saw that the path forward for humanity lies in finding a common goal and working together towards that with inclusion and equity and celebrating our diversity.

Students at University of Texas at El Paso's World Water Week

Every Singing Tree® is a step towards finding a goal shared by humanity as a whole. These steps may be small—but they are essential. The Singing Tree® Murals and community actions taken around the globe aim to affirm an awareness of our common humanity and to foster the connection and compassion that will give us the strength and courage to stand up for each other and fight for the worth of every individual.

Today we are excited to share The Desert Willow Branches to Roots Singing Tree of Propagation and Regeneration. This  project was funded by a grant from the Planet Stewards program of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has had the care and monitoring of our climate and weather as its mission. That agency, and the grants it has been  making, such as the one that funded this project, are now under attack as part of the impulse of authoritarianism that the federal government has unleashed. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to find the funding we need to bring the Singing Tree® Mural  Project to community organizations and groups.

The Desert Willow Branches to Roots project was conceived by UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) PhD student and Singing Tree® Facilitator Fernanda Lugo and co-led by Laurie Marshall. Fernanda has combined the creation of the mural with a citizen science project propagating native trees. You can see more about this at www.branchestoroots.ecoelpaso.org

More than 175 people from the El Paso area, ages 7 to 82, contributed to the mural, as well as project partners including UTEP's World Water week, Keystone Heritage Park, Benito Martinez Elementary School in Ft. Hancock, Eco El Paso, the YWCA's spring camp and environmental advocate Edith Jaurrieta de Velasco.  Participants creatively depicted the water cycle - from glaciers to rain drops to rivers to trees.  Below are contributors at Keystone Heritage Park and Benito Martinez Elementary School.

This project shows how we can come together as individuals from diverse backgrounds to care for nature, on which the life of every person depends, and to create the world we know is possible. 

On Wednesday, June 11, at 6pm MT, please join us for a webinar called "From Turmoil to Teambuilding - Three Outrageous Keys to Accelerating Trust". This is part of our initiative to use the Singing Tree® process to inspire corporate and other teams to build trust, compassion, and respect for each other and thereby contribute to the well-being of their larger communities as well.

Celebrating the value of every human being, 

Laurie and the UTC Team

PS. We have been out of touch for a while as we have been undertaking an extensive project with the CASA Autogroup in El Paso that we'll tell you about soon. 

Free webinar: From Turnover to Teambuilding

Dear Friend of Unity Through Creativity,

Join us for an hour-long, free webinar called From Turnover to Teambuilding: 3 Keys to Inspiring Committed Employees. The training will be on Wed., March 12 at 11:00 am PST, 12:00 pm MST, 1:00 pm CST and 2:00 pm EST.  Bring your magic markers or colored pencils and a piece of computer printer paper.  We'll be exploring how to build TRUST - the foundation of all relationships in business, in our family life and in our democracy.  To register click here.

We can't wait to put hearts and minds together. Once again, to register click here. Hope to see you there,

The UTC Team