Stories - USA

USA - Massachusetts Louise Dunlap
from Trauma Healing and Transformation,
Afterword, pp. 262

Louise Dunlap from Cambridge, Massachusetts, stands out as a person who has taken on the healing of her legacy. I spent a weekend with Louise shortly after she had returned from two month's participation in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage. With eighty men and women representing many faiths and cultures, Louise walked through Southern states to heal the wounds of rascism fostered by the history of slavery. Louise shared how her ancestors in Virginia had been slave owners, and her ancestors in California had abused the indigenous peoples. She poignantly described how in the name of her forebears she wanted to heal and transform their legacy of rascism and violence. Without judgment she saw them as people, like all of us, blinded by the culture and mores of their times. Louise said she often felt her ancestors presence as she participated in rituals of healing in places where slaves had been brutally beaten or murdered. She sensed that her forebears had awaited her birth so that they, too, could be freed of the violence and hatred with which they had lived. And in their names Louise said, "This stops with me!"

Like Louise, at this time on the planet, we too must address with fierce compassion the legacy of our forebears, as well as our own woundedness, so that the patterns and attitudes that are destroying us all may be healed and transformed. In our own unique ways we must each say, "This stops with me!" We are not alone in the task before us, but are accompanied by our ancestors and by the children of the future and all beings, who await our choices and our actions. In the words of David Hawkins: "The universe holds its breath as we choose, instant by instant, which pathway to follow. . .Our decisions ripple through the universe of consciousness to affect the lives of all. There is a beautiful story told by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh to encourage our action. Whenever we do good, we are surrounded by many bodhisattvas, wise beings, and holy ones, who wait to pat us on the head in encouragement!"

USA - Florida/Honduras Carol Biolock, RSCJ and Marta Bernhard
from Trauma Healing and Transformation, Chapter 5, p. 190

Honduran Marta Bernhard, concerned with the situation of older women in her country, invited 70-year old Carol Bialock RSCJ, to come and work with her. Marta and Carol visited the grandmothers and called together a circle of crones, women of wisdom and age, who in spite of ill health and bent bodies had to work to stay alive and support their families. Within the circle these tired broken women, told their stories, supporting and nourishing each other. In the process of ritual and dance they discovered who they truly are as women of wisdom. Carol wrote: "I like to think of the grandmothers as bread and perfume, who feed the body and nourish the spirit. Together we built an altar to honor the valiant women who have gone before us as models. We spoke the names of our mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers. We lit candles, sang, and gave blessings, with seeds in our hands, for seeds are the symbol of the crone, the way life continues. And through it all we danced, some with a hobble and a limp, but we danced!"

USA - California/El Salvador Pat Cane
from Trauma Healing and Transformation,
Chapter 3, p. 63

Tai Chi can definitely change attitudes. Just watching the movements affects the beholder. I had a powerful experience of this in 1993 when Capacitar coordinated the healing tent for the VI Feminist Congress of Latin America, held at a beach resort in El Salvador shortly after the peace accords. Congress coordinators received bomb threats, so government officials dispatched security forces to guard conference participants, 1200 women from twenty countries. At sunrise and sunset the Capacitar team led Tai Chi on the beach for women from many countries. To protect us an armed security guard stood watching with his machine gun. We greeted him respectfully every day, recognizing that he, too, was doing his job. On the last day he motioned me over and quietly asked, "Can men do that, too?"

Capacitar in Appalachia - Newsletter, Winter 2002

Capacitar has been reaching out to many people in the Appalachian region this fall. Deborah Haydu, Kathleen McNulty and Sister Carolyn Brink, R.S.M. teamed up with artist Sister Marianne Hieb, R.S.M. to present a Wellness Retreat at Jubilee House Retreat Center in Abingdon, VA. A Capacitar group meets monthly at Sunrise Center, a self-help center for low-income women. At one of the meetings the 9-year-old daughter of one of the women learned the "Leadership Dance." She went home and practiced it and then led the dance for the whole group when she came to the next meeting.

This fall Capacitar Appalachia taught healing techniques to women at a health fair, a cancer outreach group, an interfaith charismatic group, a college class, a free clinic, and a retreat group. In all, the team has given over 40 workshops to a total of 611 people since July, 2001. Kathleen McNulty and Terri Therrien are planning to teach the Labyrinth to the parishioners at Resurrection Church in Moneta, VA. In 2003 the Capacitar Appalachia team is scheduled to give a twilight retreat at Jubilee House in Abingdon, VA.