Winter 2022 - Nourishing the Roots

It’s a New Year! I am sending you a winter greeting of nourishing the roots during the fallow season. As I reflect upon the concept of Unity Through Creativity, I am struck by the importance of being a Life-Long Learner in order to continually regenerate the roots of Creativity. Nature doesn't say, "I'm done adapting to reality." Nature says "How can I grow in this new situation? Where can I get nourishment? How can I give back to my eco-system?" By getting support from inspirational leaders, Unity Through Creativity (UTC) continually seeks to go deeper, wider, higher. Two programs gave us rigorous frameworks, team strength and expansive vision in 2021: Redesign Training and Shiloh Sofia McCloud's Intentional Creativity. The wisdom of these two loving, demanding and innovative offerings are being incorporated into the Singing Tree Methodology, Facilitator Training and other UTC programs.

Redesign Training provided an accountability structure for being one's word, goal-setting, radical possibility and group collaboration. The Blue Angels are the model for teamwork. These Air Force jets fly 20 inches apart at 900 miles per hour. The stakes are high and the accomplishments are thrilling. UTC partnered Redesign Training to raise $13,000 for Kids in Need of Defense through the Mahogany Singing Tree to Reunite Children with Their Families. We are also supporting Redesign Training for our Singing Tree Facilitators and Board members.

Shiloh Sophia McCloud is spearheading a worldwide movement of Intentional Creativity. A community of over 10,000 women join together as a stand for Inclusion, Creativity as a Birthright and growing Feminine Wisdom. Last year I participated in Shiloh's offering called "Ritual", painting on one canvas for 13 moons, as did 200 plus other women around the world. Shiloh asks us to deeply experience our unconscious, embrace our shadow and express what is unknown. I view this self-reflection as an essential process for Peace Building. Violence so often results from unmet, unconscious needs and trauma. If these needs and trauma can be made visible through art and shared through community, healing takes place. Below is the process of my painting which is almost complete.

Beginning - Three Soul Strokes

Consecration

Devotion

The Soul Dwells in Place - Mountains

Illumination

The Visible Self and the Hidden Self

I am now embarking on Shiloh's next offering, "Maverick". I love how she articulates this year long-process: "Create a painting that honors your disruptor, rebel-with-a-cause, badass mystic artist archetype along with over a hundred other people around the world. All WHILE cultivating radical optimism in unreasonable times."

Yes, radical optimism in unreasonable times! This is the foundation of Unity Through Creativity. This is the unseen growth of the roots during the winter. This is the dandelion growing in the crack of the concrete. I treasure the nourishment from ReDesign Training and Intentional Creativity. Where are you getting your nourishment in the fallow times? I'd love to hear.

The challenges ahead are daunting. Creativity, Connection and Compassion are the key to a thriving human presence on the earth.

Thank you for being a part of this movement. You are treasured. You are needed. You are connected. You are essential.

With Love,

Laurie

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|||. TheSinging Tree of Love and Inclusion at Biondi Elementary School in Yonkers, New York - facilitated by Kristin Linder-Holmes in a school for traumatized youth who have been incarcerated and hospitalized. Students in Workington England, who just completed the Singing Tree of Inclusion and Protection, part of the 5x5 Program, will be connecting to New York students to accompany them in their project.

These are just highlights of the many projects we have planned. We will feature these original collaborative murals in our newsletter over the coming year.

This is what your gift can do:

$25 = A Set of Prismacolor colored pencils for coloring leaves and birds on a Singing Tree mural

$50 = Two 8' x 4' Boards that will make an 8' x 8' Singing Tree

$100 = Paints and brushes for an 8' x 8' mural

$500 = 400 Posters and postcards to distribute the Singing Tree Image throughout the impacted community

$1000 = 3 days of Singing Tree Facilitation with 150 students working on a Singing Tree

$3000 = Full Scholarship for a Six-month Singing Tree Facilitator's Training for a deserving trainee

You can make your gift here or contact me for other giving options. Your support now will help ensure that we can expand the reach of the Singing Tree Project and affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the next 20 years

May the Holidays and New Year be filled with Creativity, Joy and Abundance.

With Gratitude,

Laurie

The Future

I need your help in bringing Unity Through Creativity and the Singing Tree Project to a new, global level of impact in creating peace and hope. As one of our dear friends, commenting on this work, said, “When disparate peoples come together with a common goal, hope is created.” The Singing Tree is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year. There are now over 100 Trees in the Singing Tree Forest that have included over 21,000 people. Three programs are leading the Singing Tree into the future:

• The 5x5 Program, linking five locales across the world in mutual support of making at least one Singing Tree a year for five years. These projects will include researchers Dr. Maureen Porter and two PHD students at the University of Pittsburgh to make a formal study of the impact of the Singing Trees on the communities.

• The Singing Tree Facilitators Certification Program, which is training artists and organizers throughout the world to make Singing Trees, freeing this impulse from my personal involvement while keeping the Singing Trees connected with UTC. Trainees who have completed the six-month online training become members of the Singing Tree Facilitators Guild.

• The Refugee Singing Tree Program, which is aimed at working with refugees in settlements throughout the world, beginning with Uganda.

We have already raised $51,300 towards our $100,000 Annual Fund goal. Your gift will support us in working on the many projects we will be undertaking this year which include:

1. The Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Singing Tree of Healing the Trauma of War, the pilot project in our Refugee Program. This will take place at the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda, home to over 125,000 displaced persons. We plan to expand this work over the next three years to all 19 zones of the settlement. The bare bones budget is $17,000 to get started.

1. Co-hearts 4, 5 and 6 of the Facilitators Training. Co-heart 4 is already underway. We are aiming for a total enrollment of 30. Many students cannot afford the full fee of $3000. Our scholarship needs are vast. Students receiving scholarships include two facilitators-in-training in Uganda and one in Fiji.

2. The Cyprus Singing Tree of Peace, part of the 5x5 Program, will be created with our partner, Visual Voices. Eight Turkish and Greek Cypriot young artists will gain leadership and artistic skills to create a mural that will hang at the headquarters of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force on Cyprus. The project will start in January after two years of planning. We've received $13,100 to begin the pilot.

|||. TheSinging Tree of Love and Inclusion at Biondi Elementary School in Yonkers, New York - facilitated by Kristin Linder-Holmes in a school for traumatized youth who have been incarcerated and hospitalized. Students in Workington England, who just completed the Singing Tree of Inclusion and Protection, part of the 5x5 Program, will be connecting to New York students to accompany them in their project.

These are just highlights of the many projects we have planned. We will feature these original collaborative murals in our newsletter over the coming year.

This is what your gift can do:

$25 = A Set of Prismacolor colored pencils for coloring leaves and birds on a Singing Tree mural

$50 = Two 8' x 4' Boards that will make an 8' x 8' Singing Tree

$100 = Paints and brushes for an 8' x 8' mural

$500 = 400 Posters and postcards to distribute the Singing Tree Image throughout the impacted community

$1000 = 3 days of Singing Tree Facilitation with 150 students working on a Singing Tree

$3000 = Full Scholarship for a Six-month Singing Tree Facilitator's Training for a deserving trainee

You can make your gift here or contact me for other giving options. Your support now will help ensure that we can expand the reach of the Singing Tree Project and affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the next 20 years

May the Holidays and New Year be filled with Creativity, Joy and Abundance.

With Gratitude,

Laurie Marshall

The Olive Singing Tree of Evolving Elders

At least 54 million Americans are over 65. How can this population, which I am a part of, use our experience to be in service to each other and the younger generations? Sage-ing International answers this question with the motto "Wisdom and Spirit in Action." I had the privilege of facilitating "The Olive Singing Tree of Evolving Elders" for their inspiring summit on Oct. 29-31st. The theme of the conference was "Growing From I to We" and included keynote speakers Michael Meade, Clyde Ford and Amikaeyla Gaston. Below is a short slide show of a few of the sessions I was able to attend.

I was so impressed and moved by Sage-ing International 's self-organizing principles of Wisdom Circles, the high degree of care for all people and the use of

ritual to honor the sacred. They are a community that puts into practice the values of the Sage.

I close with the almost completed Olive Singing Tree of Evolving Elders, co-designed with Katia Peterson and the Sage-ing International, co-created with Lili Lopez. Let's keep growing.