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When we heard that Jon Symes, Director of the Awakening the Dreamer program, was going to be in the Seattle area, Linda, Jane and I felt it was a great opportunity for the Northwest Pachamama Community. We decided to see if Jon could meet with the local community of facilitators to have him hear who we were and what we held as our vision. Jon told us he would be delighted to meet with the community!
Organizing the meeting
Things fell into place as we were able to get a free venue at St. Mark’s cathedral, and our communication tools were finally working with ease. Sarah Keenan and Jane Calbreath had recently set up a Google Group, which has been making announcements to the community much easier for the Community Coordinators. We used the Google Group and our three groups on the ATD Facilitator Network, and our ‘facebook’ page and made calls…and someone even posted it on Meet Up. I decided to fix some hors d’oeuvres and bring some wine and juice to make the evening festive.
We were delighted that 18 facilitators showed up to the gathering, some of whom we had not seen for a long time, some who had not even attended a Symposium before, and everywhere in between. There was also a group of people who had been involved in the original symposium and facilitator training in the Northwest in 2006/2007. We also had two people attend who had no idea who we were or what a symposium was, but who thought this sounded like an interesting event! We had people from other organizations that align with the ATD, and facilitators like Steve Motenko, who is doing ongoing work on ATD Post-Symposium Engagement. We had young people like my son, Jordan, who is engaged in the youth WakeUp! version of the symposium. We had people like David Spinney who travelled up from Eugene, OR, and Sunny Thompson who came up from Ashford, near Mt. Rainier (Tahoma). We had Native American elder, Patricia Anne Davis, and Carlo Voli, who is working to get solar power to Edmonds, Washington. Randy Morris, who had facilitated a huge Joanna Macy event at the church last fall, joined us along with others from the St Mark’s facilitators team. And many other new and experienced facilitators and supporters.
Jon, in his wonderful way, facilitated everyone introducing themselves and sharing a bit about their involvement in ATD. He spoke about what is going on in the global community and how the ATD leadership is aiming to have one million people attend the symposium by the end of 2014. This brought on a creative discussion about what it would take for our community to do our share toward that goal.
The evening was a circle of deep sharing and connection. When the event was over, almost no one left. Everyone was engaged in conversations that the group share had inspired. To me this is the sign of a good event! While Jon was in Seattle we also talked to him about the anticipated rollout events and were able to schedule a pilot session here in Seattle in December. Now we have another major ATD event to plan and look forward to for the whole community!
The future for the Seattle Community
Thanks to Jon Symes’ generosity and great spirit, the NW Pachamama group has been inspired and motivated to deepen our commitments to this work. What a truly great way to start off the 2011/2012 year. Many thanks to Jon for taking the time to meet with us and inspire us to expand the work of bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on our Earth home!
By Peggi Erickson
