News & Updates

All in Due Time…

If you read our newsletter frequently, you may recall how excited we were about our connection with The IF Project. In December 2020 we announced our formal partnership; in February I wrote about participating in their Writers’ Workshops. Then suddenly things went inexplicably quiet. What we know now is that they underwent a major reorganization. It would have been easy to believe they became indifferent about our work together and give up. However, the thing that drew our organizations together initially – to be of authentic service to women who are or recently had been incarcerated — remained. As a result, I am pleased to report we have reconnected and are discussing ways for Soul Seeds to help support their new Health & Wellness programming.

What a reminder to trust the process that is both seen and unseen! One of my favorite quotes is from Patrick Overton. “When you come to the edge of all the light you have and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.” I love the metaphor of being taught how to fly. How often do we set aside a project, relationship, or dream because we cannot see how it could possibly happen? How consistently do we dwell in possibility and hope and trust? If your answer is, “Not very often,” then join the club!

When we trust the process, it allows for other paths to unfold. At this point in the year, we imagined being several months into shared programming with The IF Project. Instead, other opportunities have arisen. We have delved deeper into approaches to understanding mental health and trauma. The powerful film featuring Dr. Gabor Maté, The Wisdom of Trauma (next broadcast is July 28 – August 1) sets out his vision is of “a trauma-informed society in which [we] …are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.” Those of us with Soul Seeds feel the resonance with that approach as we seek to bring healing support that reconnects individuals with their innate wisdom and capacity to love themselves, touching the light of the “wounded human soul.”

We’re beginning to feel the movement of energy around our work! We’re connecting with more community partners interested in bringing us in to support their staff and their clients. Two more volunteers will be hosting Healing Our Community gatherings this month. We’ve discussed volunteer opportunities with Dakoda Fox, who is singlehandedly combating youth homelessness in Pierce County (WA) through her organization, the Power of Two. We have begun to consider how to continue our equity work by adding more structure in programming and in our engagement with our Board and our volunteers. Many paths unfolding.

And, in this month’s biggest news, we anticipate the return of Free Healing Fridays in September. We are grateful for the volunteer healers who have remained committed to the program. We recently started meeting again and had a wonderful session in June when we traded healings with one another in breakout rooms on Zoom. We can’t wait to see everyone in person!

As I write, the song Turn! Turn! Turn! (The Byrds rendition) is playing in my head. “To everything/ turn, turn, turn/There is a season/turn, turn, turn/And a time to every purpose under heaven.” Everything is in alignment. Everything happens for a reason. All in due time. It is much easier to release and let go when we believe we’re being taught how to fly!

Melanie Davis-Jones (she/her/hers)
Executive Director

In Case You Missed It:

Remember the Sunshine of Your Soul | Video by Nancy Rebecca, Soul Seeds Founder and Board President

Nancy’s interview with Soul Seeds volunteer, Kathleen Dowd

Resources:

Mental Health First Aid “teaches people how to recognize signs of mental health or substance use challenges in adults, how to offer and provide initial help, and how to guide a person toward appropriate care if necessary. Topics covered include anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addictions.”

July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, created to “bring awareness to the unique struggles that underrepresented groups face in regard to mental illness in the U.S.” (BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and is pronounced “by-pock.”)

The Global Humanitarian Overview 2021 (GHO) is “the world’s most comprehensive, authoritative and evidence-based assessment of humanitarian need. Through plans that prioritize those most in need, it aims to fight hunger, killer diseases, gender-based violence and displacement.”

Seen, Heard, and Valued

Equity training is not for the faint of heart! It can be uncomfortable, emotional, and simply unnerving as you begin to process your own frailties and assess your particular worldview — all while holding a space of compassion for others. I described it to our group as navigating our many dimensions of vulnerability. After all, our life experiences impact our perspectives … and our biases.

I am incredibly grateful to Maggie McGlynn for her expert facilitation that pushed us, educated us, and inspired us to put the training into action. And I am sincerely appreciative of our Board members and volunteers who were willing to be vulnerable enough to create containers of trust for our work together. This foundation will enable us to apply an equity lens when we are designing Soul Seeds’ programming – and in our everyday lives.

To me, one of the most important conversations was about dignity; the basis was the Donna Hicks definition. “Dignity not only explains an aspect of what it means to be human, but also is a hallmark of our shared humanity. Everyone wants to be treated in a way that shows they matter.”  Isn’t that the truth? We all want to be seen, heard, and valued. We want to be understood. We want to feel safe. Yet we rarely go through the world with the recognition that everyone has these same needs. Every. Single. Person.

One of the things I appreciate about the Soul Seeds’ meditation technique is the power in its simplicity which makes it something that most everyone can do. And the movement of energy transcends boundaries to elicit tangible healing experiences and a sense of interconnectedness. Beautiful!  

We’ve introduced some more people to this experience through Healing Our Community – guided meditations to put more healing energy out into the world. I’m delighted to report that we have had two more gatherings. Nancy Rebecca hosted one with a focus on homelessness; Kathleen Dowd hosted another on mental health. Both said it was heart-opening for them and for their fellow meditators. Many participants mentioned they were delighted to have the opportunity to take positive action for issues they care about.

We would like to expand our outreach. If you have had PMI training in these meditation techniques (or if you haven’t had the training but would like to host a gathering — we’ll supply someone to lead the meditation), please email me.

As we slowly move into a post-pandemic world, may we be bold and find the courage to tend to ourselves and to one another, grounded in truth, in compassion, in dignity, and in grace. We can follow the guidance of a Zen Buddhist master, “Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child,” Soyen Shaku.

Melanie Davis-Jones (she/her/hers)
Executive Director

In Case You Missed It:

Water: A Sacred, Altruistic Intelligence | Blog and video by Nancy Rebecca

Redefining You Foundation for women veterans — Crucial Conversations: Mental Health and Wellness, featuring Melanie Davis-Jones

Resources:

Pride Month is dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ+ voices, celebration of LGBTQ+ culture, and the support of LGBTQ+ rights.

National Post-Traumatic Stress Awareness Month. “Everyone with PTSD—whether they are Veterans or civilian survivors of sexual assault, serious accidents, natural disasters, or other traumatic events—needs to know that treatments really do work and can lead to a better quality of life.”

Assistance available at PTSD Coach Online.

Black Music Month designated to appreciate the contributions of black musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters to American culture.

Dreaming in All Colors

Sometimes a powerful personal narrative is expressed with such poignancy you can not only visualize the scene but also feel its sorrow. This happened to me when I was watching a 60 Minutes interview with the incomparable Viola Davis. She was reflecting on her childhood and how it impacted her. “When you’re poor … it seeps through your mind. It’s not just a financial state, it’s an invisibility state, a worthlessness state.” Invisible. Worthless. Those words rang in my ears and reverberated in my heart. I could envision her as a child – and because of that, I could picture the countless others who are living in that state — whether through poverty, abuse, or trauma — right now. It strengthened my resolve to comprehend people’s lives at a deeper level, raise awareness of the challenges, and continue to bring the work of Soul Seeds forward in a meaningful way.

In recognition that we can be more aligned with our mission — honoring each person’s innate wisdom —  when we can connect openly with other people’s perspectives and lived experiences, our Board and several volunteers will begin doing equity training this Saturday. (Thank you, Maggie McGlynn!) We’ll be talking about empathy, dignity, realities, and mindsets, all with the understanding that beginning to build these core competencies will support our work in the community. Everyone is ready to get started.

We’ve also been working on more ways to be of service. We recently launched a program consisting of small online gatherings hosted by individuals trained in our meditation techniques. Healing Our Community is designed to help people learn more about Soul Seeds by experiencing the meditation and having conversations about issues that matter to them. Hosts will choose their own topic. It might be community-specific (e.g. Tacoma, LGBTQ+), issue-specific (e.g. for the waters, for people who are homeless), or broad (e.g. for our nation, for peace).

I just hosted the first one. Mine was called Healing Our Community | Healing Our Hearts. I deliberately chose right before Mother’s Day to stand in solidarity with mothers who had suffered the unspeakable loss of their children in the past year. Though the topic was heart-rending, our focus was on sending out love and its transformational intelligence. The women in my group and I could feel the resonance of the energy and it gave us solace to know that we were putting healing vibrations into the world. In the coming months, you’ll be hearing more about opportunities to join or host these gatherings. It was such a touching experience for me, I hope you will be able to experience it as well.    

The ability to heal; the breaking down of barriers; the deepening of understanding of one another often comes through widening our vision in ways that may be small, yet meaningful. The other day Victor Glover, the first black astronaut on the ISS, SpaceX responded to the question about being an inspiration for kids, “I think we all need to be able to dream in color.” Isn’t that a beautiful thought? Everyone dreaming in color with the chance to make those dreams come true. That feels like a big, spectacular rainbow of possibilities for us all.

Melanie Davis-Jones (she/her/hers)
Executive Director

In Case You Missed It:

Why Can’t I Find My True Love? | Blog and Video by Nancy Rebecca

Resources:

Charter for Compassion: “The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.”

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month – Why Talk About It?

The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), organizes the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline, a referral service to local rape crisis centers. Call the Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or access RAINN’s online chat service.

Purpose Larger than the Self

I was struck by a quote I read recently. “The highest form of knowledge, according to George Eliot, is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.” (Bill Bullard). In a country where we seem to constantly debate – Coke vs. Pepsi, blue vs. red, us vs. them – we rarely take time to consider what it is to live in another’s world. We live in our little bubbles (even before the pandemic made bubbles a necessity), often quite comfortable that our view of the world is the only one that’s valid. We cannot always see beyond our own realities to understand, appreciate, and validate other people’s experiences with empathy, kindness, and compassion.

What exactly is empathy? This definition comes from Greater Good Magazine. “Contemporary researchers often differentiate between two types of empathy: ‘Affective empathy’ refers to the sensations and feelings we get in response to others’ emotions; this can include mirroring what that person is feeling, or just feeling stressed when we detect another’s fear or anxiety. ‘Cognitive empathy,’ sometimes called ‘perspective taking,’ refers to our ability to identify and understand other people’s emotions …. Having empathy doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll want to help someone in need, though it’s often a vital first step toward compassionate action.” So, why practice empathy? “[It] is a building block of morality … and has far-reaching importance,” including the fact that when “group norms encourage empathy, people are more likely to be empathic—and more altruistic.” Read more about the benefits.

I’ve previously mentioned my work with the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force Speakers’ Bureau. I am delighted to share that a speaker I trained gave his talk for the first time to a group of 15 people (and left many in tears). Marvin spoke about how typical his life was – being a class clown but liking school, getting scholarship offers from colleges – until two seminal events. His older brother (and role model) was jailed and not long after, his mother died. He went into a tailspin of drugs, prison, and self-hatred. For years he lived on the streets, but he found a way out because eventually he connected with counselors who listened and were moved to help. (He’s now in school, working, and 18 months clean.) Marvin challenged us all to do better for each other. “People who are homeless aren’t just throwaways. Look at us, see how we’re moving; help if you can. I mean, sometimes we’d see stray dogs being treated better than us.” His willingness to be vulnerable and candid, elicited empathy – and offers of help — from those who heard his presentation. Marvin was proud to be able to tell his story … and that people cared enough to listen.

At Soul Seeds, we are currently putting programs in place to help us better understand what it is to live in another’s world and to respond accordingly. I’ll have more details next month about how we’re moving forward in this work. If we are to live in a more just and more compassionate world, we must begin to see one another as individuals – all with different life experiences but with the beautiful common threads of feelings, promise, and the capacity for love.

This spring, as the days become longer, invite more light into your heart and express it at every opportunity. Find joy in sharing a kind word or gesture. Believe that we have more in common than what separates us and act from that place of positive consciousness. As Stevie Wonder so touchingly wrote and sang, love’s in need of love today so let’s cultivate empathy, kindness, generosity, and compassion – all to give some loving attention to acts of love!

Melanie Davis-Jones (she/her/hers)
Executive Director

In Case You Missed It:

Why Can’t I Find My True Love? | Blog and Video by Nancy Rebecca

Resources:

Charter for Compassion: “The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.”

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month – Why Talk About It?

The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), organizes the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline, a referral service to local rape crisis centers. Call the Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or access RAINN’s online chat service.

Hearing Voices

March, Women’s History Month, brims with the promise of spring and the inspirational voices of women whose words can lift us, particularly as we reflect on a year of living with the pandemic.

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” –  Helen Keller

“The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.” –  J.K. Rowling

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”  – Maya Angelou

After reading these quotes, I thought about some recent conversations – one with a woman who served for two decades in the Air Force; another with a woman ready to start a new life after years of being incarcerated; and another with a woman who was homeless for more than seven years, beginning at age 14. Their voices are equally moving.

“We’re taught ‘service before self’ and that leaves so many of us without a system of coping skills in place that allow us to thrive as women veterans out in the world.”

“I now recognize my brokenness hurt others. If I had known I was enough just as I am, maybe things would have been different.”

“It took weeks to sleep in a bed, I was so used to sleeping on cardboard and cement. I had to be taught I deserved to sleep on something soft.”

These are the voices that are often unheard, that ache in silence, waiting for someone, anyone, to pay attention. As we celebrate the accomplishments of women, we must also raise awareness of the inequities women face that can exacerbate already challenging circumstances.

You’ve probably heard of Equal Pay Day – “the approximate day a woman must work into the new year to make what a white, non-Hispanic man made at the end of the previous year.” This year it is March 24. For LGBTQ women it is in June; for black women, in August; for Native women, in September; for Latinas and women with disabilities, it is in October.

Why do these facts matter to the work of Soul Seeds? As we connect with underserved populations, we must be aware of conditions that amplify stress, depression, and trauma in order to support them more effectively. Our vision — Healing with Humanity — means we begin with compassion as we honor each person’s innate wisdom and capacity for love, bringing healing support to them, their communities, and to our world.

Let each of us, no matter our gender, listen well and give voice to the callings of our hearts – expressions of love energy to fuel our collective future.

Melanie Davis-Jones (she/her/hers)
Executive Director

In Case You Missed It:

Opening to Your Ancestral Heart! | Blog by Nancy Rebecca

Do You Guard Your Heart? | Video by Nancy Rebecca

Resources:

 #FirstRespondersFirst supports frontline health care and public safety professionals facing the adverse mental health effects of the pandemic. The NAMI Frontline Wellness program includes a Crisis Text Line that offers free 24/7 mental health support. Text “10-18” or “SCRUBS” to 741741 for help.

Patience, A Stress Preventer Overlooked | Blog from the HeartMath Institute