Gathering Community in a Pandemic

A Project of Andrea Pollak 2020

In early spring of 2020, the Pandemic took hold in the U.S. Second year SoULL student, Andrea Pollak took to the streets of her Connecticut neighborhood with her husband Andy, a few ideas from SoULL, and a bunch of fliers with an invitation to gather. Her intention was to bring people out of isolation and fear and into connection. People showed up in front of Andrea and Andy’s house and shared. At first it was an experiment, but Andrea went on to hold that community circle each evening for 60 straight days, through our darkest days of uncertainty and fear.

People brought coffee cups. People spoke. They fed themselves with connection and shared wisdom. No one mentioned politics. The community that was formed in that neighborhood from these meetings was enduring, and the stories it generated are legion. An ill elder neighbor watched from his window nightly, healings were offered for the very ill, connections restored. It inspired community activism such as support (and lunches) for highly stressed caregivers in nursing homes, and much more. All from an invitation from one wise, and open hearted woman to her community and a circle in an ordinary (and extraordinary) American neighborhood. Meanwhile, Andrea walked another step into her leadership. Now she is SoULL’s Assistant Director, and Andy is a SoULL student too!

Thanks for fostering this beauty dear Andrea.

SoULL in the Public School

A Project of Jackie Kelly 2020

In 2019 I enrolled in graduate school for social work after 5 years in a corporate environment and one year of SoULL. That fall I interned at a middle school counseling students from the ages of 10-12. The SoULL teachings guided my work, enabling me to see and connect to these young human beings. This was in part due to my “teaching assistants”: the plants that I had in my office.

During most sessions, I would ask my students to water the plants. We spoke about life, growth and the energy within all living things. For example, one student was processing the recent death of his aunt and his fear of death. I spoke about the energy that goes into creating the plant that helps it grow, but also what happens after it blooms. We traced the energy moving back into the earth. I helped him see how this is a natural life process, which prompted further questions of death and dying. He asked if it’s the same flower that blooms the following spring. Instead of answering him, I asked what he thought. He said he thought it was the same or at least part of them was in the soil. We then went on to discuss his aunt and process what he wanted to say to her. He expressed creatively through drawing, and left it underneath one of the plants in my room. This is just one example of how SoULL teachings assisted my students in learning and healing.

In March of 2020, when COVID-19 forced the world to shutdown, my time counseling came to an abrupt end. There was no time to process the changes with my students or say goodbye. I was heartbroken. Though the situation was beyond anyone’s control, I felt I had failed them. It felt like a death to me. Ultimately, I recognized that I was grieving our loss of connection, and needed space to process our ending. These kids had so bravely opened up to me about their lives. They taught me how to sit with others who are struggling and in pain. It was truly an exchange. I consider them some of my greatest teachers.

SoULL taught me that a relationship doesn’t disappear when people aren’t in each other’s presence. I had also learned that while we may not always get the ending we want, we can still be empowered to have a good ending, even after a bad one. Continuuing the flow of energy between people in relationships, instead of cutting off, we may find it isn’t an ending after all.

I decided to process my experience with each of my students on my own by writing them each a letter reviewing the work we had done, and expressing what they had taught me. I shared my view of them, recalled their strengths, dreams, and hopes for the future. Once all the letters were completed, I went through each and read it to them as if they were sitting in front me. I sensed an immediate grounding and settling in my body. I believe that they heard me on some level.

These teachings guided me both in working with students and grappling with the after effects of an abrupt and unexpected shift in relationships with my students. I am forever grateful that I was able to process all of the work and connection experienced throughout the school year.

A community grieves: A SPIRAL DANCE FOR DEATH IN MEXICO

By Elizabeth Carl. 

Hi, I am Liz Carl, one of SoULL’s board members and teachers as well as a director of a Core Energetics Institute in Poland.   I want to share a little story about working with some of the teachings of SoULL in one of the communities I am most engaged with.

This August the International Energetics Core community came together for a  Convention in Cancun Mexico.  When  all 130 of us  arrived we got the sad news that Cees Van Loon, one of our dear friends and fellow director in the Netherlands (NICE), was actively dying in Holland.  Cees was an extraordinarily kind, vibrant, fun loving  and intelligent man.  Besides running the Dutch Institute, he was an international teacher and on the Programming Committee for this Convention.  He  was invaluable to us all, but of course had to bow out of our Committee after he found out about his diagnosis in order to focus on  his family and  trying to heal.

When I reached Cancun the Producer of the Convention, Jorge Galindo, pulled me aside.  We agreed we needed to create some kind of ritual together.  But what?  Here we were…I was…on the brink of  a death experience.  I reached into my SOULL training for guidance.  I knew and trusted that the thing to do would come to me from that deep body of knowing.  I collaborated with my dear friend  and co-Director Ala Konopko-Ulanecki.  We both slept on it and it came to her to do some kind of circle, or some kind of spiral. The spiral is a potent symbol for life processes of all kinds, but also a symbol that Core Energetics uses for its healing process. I thought “Spiral Dance”.

I called Jeanne Denney and we talked about the energetics of the Circle I had learned in SoULL, how the direction of a community moving together has been used in ancient times to support both dying and grieving, and how the circle is a fundamental way of uniting community, most especially supporting death. How appropriate that uniting in community was the theme of our convention. Our goal was to help Cees leave, but also hold onto his beloved wife Anna, keeping her with us.  If Cees did not pass away by the end of the week, we knew he would choose to be euthanized, which is a right in the Netherlands.

On Saturday night, we invited all the participants of the Convention to join us in a Ritual to support Cees and his co-Director and wife, Anna Timmermans who was at his side. I kept following my instincts on how this was to be done.  I found a drummer and asked him to provide music.  We instructed Jorge and his wife Lola. We gathered and I explained to the group that we ask for their energy to support these two people.  With a candle, Jorge and his wife Loly led us with the Spiral Dance, first clockwise and we turned and turned and turned inward.  When we reached the center, Jorge  asked us all to begin toning to give Anna our support and help her ground on this earth as she says farewell to the love of her life.  Sounds emerged from all of us and filled the hall with the support of the drummer spurred us on. Several Core people from the Netherland held the center with a candle. Profound reverberation being sent across the ocean to our beloved Anna.

Then Loly led, turning us counterclockwise, explaining that now we will join our energies to help Cees as he leaves this lifetime.   With love and tears, we turned and turned.  When the spiral was unwound, Loly asked us to bend over and start scooping up the energy upward  with our hands, to help Cees’s spirit ascend.   We all scooped him up  again and again, beaming him up, all of us.  Loly, a healer and channel, whispered to me “He is telling me to keep on doing this. He says it is helping him”.  We finally stopped and played a piece of classical music that Cees had told another director to play at his memorial service.  It was beautiful. Another song was played called “A  Prayer”

When we quietly ended nobody wanted to leave.  We stayed in this energy and cried and held each other. This is how we could help Anna  and  Cees at his deathbed, even at a distance.  He died peacefully the next day.   

I am so grateful that we did this.  I am grateful that we were guided in this way.