“Transiciones” De la herida a la Vida; del dolor al olor; de la prisa a la risa; del llanto al canto…. de los duelos… a los vuelos…”
“Transitions” a loose translation From wounding to Living; from pain to scent; from “I’m late”to laughter; from tears to singing…. from mourning… to flight…”
“You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
–Psalm 30: 11-12 ESV
Our first intensive training for the EXIT(Expressive Arts in Transition) Cuba pilot project finished two weeks ago in Matanza, Cuba, but the yearlong practice and supervision process is just beginning. 10 creative and committed leaders will be artfully accompanying various communities throughout Cuba as they implement early intervention practices to help deal with the impacts of trauma.
Due to ongoing trauma, we armor up to protect ourselves, get trapped in the past, and hold stress in our bodies. The arts help us to engage our senses to make sense of our stories, practice presence by staying in the here and now, and move forward in healthy ways as researchers of our own bodies. With a focus on salutogenesis, an approach to human health that examines the factors contributing to the promotion and maintenance of physical and mental well-being rather than disease and pathology, we are learning to ask ourselves, “Where is health
here? What do I need to do that will nurture well-being here?
While in Matanza, we held stories of struggle and strength, we processed grief and frustrations, we sat in silence and song, painted and played, used our imaginations to travel in time and danced out animal strengths that would help us face our daily challenges. Immersed in the beautiful surroundings of the seminary overlooking the sea and shaded by flamboyan trees, we rediscovered the resources around and within us that we already possess. With the accompaniment of the community, one participant was able to name and take steps towards healing a debilitating fear that had plagued them for years. Another embraced a new perspective on a negative bias held and saw the benefits of a “both and” approach. By stepping into the future with a resource from the past and surrounded by friends now, another saw themselves accomplishing a long held dream within the year. These are just a few of the glimpses of transformation that we witnessed together.
I am so grateful for the support of many folks who are making this pilot project a reality. Yim Locke’s name was drawn from the box of gift givers to receive the stained glass art that I made and Barb Shustek’s name was drawn to receive a collage made from the signatures and collaborative painting made by the participants. God works in communities to transform our mourning into dancing and our struggles into strengths.
More than one billion people have been affected by violence and disasters around the world. Every day, people affected by a crisis have to make decisions about how to use the skills and resources available to them to best meet their emotional, psychological and spiritual needs. Often there are not enough pastors, psychologists, doctors or counselors to meet the challenges of accompaniment. In addition, in many parts of the world, especially in Cuba, it is difficult to access services in a meaningful way due to distance, financial means and time available. More needs to be done to support and equip leaders who are already providing vital help in their own communities and cultures but lack the formation and practice in trauma-informed support. This July we are planning to launch a pilot project in Cuba, called Expressive Arts in Transition (EXIT) that will provide capacity, confidence and community support for over-extended care providers who come alongside others in situations of crisis.
Survivors of trauma are constantly looking for a sense of home and security outside of themselves. The EXIT program places attention on finding this sense of home internally in the physical body. Based on resilience and growth, the EXIT program started in Norway and is based on longitudinal studies with unaccompanied minors and war refugees from the Balkans. It is an early intervention model, using the expressive arts in trauma-informed ways to provide psychosocial and spiritual support in response to individual and community crisis and transition. My co-facilitator, Shabrae Jackson and I both received our EXIT training and certification from its founder, Dr. Melinda Ashley Meyer DeMott. We hope to train and certify Spanish speaking faith leaders, social service providers and peace builders in the EXIT model so that they can train others in their communities to provide accessible and needed psycho-social-spiritual support for trauma recovery. It will be the first time this internationally recognized program will be offered in Latin America.
Through play, movement and the arts, we will create a space where people can imagine new possibilities and community practices of connection and healing. We will focus on building hope for the future through practices of spontaneity, movement, imagination, commitment, connection, the here and now and both personal and collective responsibility. This project will offer access to practical, arts-based accompaniment skills for faith leaders, community organizers, peace builders, social service providers, health professionals, and university professors from every province of Cuba. The 6-day
intensive training will include community meals, daily group-building, sessions of experiential learning, artmaking, body-based grounding and flexibility exercises, and spiritual reflection as individuals and groups.It is our hope and vision to create a Latin American EXIT (Expressive Arts in Transition) team in the next two years of Latin American leaders who will become trainers of trainers, providing contextual formation for a cadre of expressive arts accompaniers. With learnings from this pilot project, we hope to expand this training to many other Spanish speaking countries.
Access to innovative educational opportunities like this program is beyond the financial capacity of most Cuban citizens where average monthly income does not exceed $150. I am praying and planning to secure funding to provide the week’s room and board ($240 per person) for all participants, making accessible a training opportunity that would not normally be financially feasible for the participants. I’ve already received gifts to cover 4 participants’ food and housing costs. We need 11 more now. Would you consider giving something to make this training possible? I created an original glass art piece measuring 8”X10” to be a reminder of the community effort to support this unique gathering. All gifts of $50+ given to the Cuba pilot project between June 1 – August 1, 2023, will be entered into a raffle to win the art. Until the project is posted on IM’s website, all donations can be made by checks to International Ministries, noting Mylinda Baits Specifics Cuba project or by calling Julie to process your card at donor services 610-768-2314.
A million thanks for caring for this creative as I strive to care for other carers. You make all of the difference.
In early March, after walking my living labyrinth planted with three kinds of bulbs, these words came to me:
Barefoot, cold penetrating the soles of my feet, I walk gingerly on the path formed by wooden rounds, circling slowly towards the center where I’ll sit for a minute or so. Each day, a new green sprout reaches upward, a bit too slowly for my taste. I want to see more progress, a bloom, and evidence of life. Yet, the slow growth grounds me in a way. I am held in patient pause, forced to look for the small, incremental shifts that escape my gaze when I’m in a hurry. With each step I notice the clutter of fallen leaves slowly decomposing, tree limbs tossed onto the path by winds of the night, footprints of deer passing through. I try not to be annoyed, the constant maintenance of the perfect path is wearying. I fight the urge to declutter, moving forward, noticing, naming, but refusing to stay stuck. Hugging the curves, tender green shoots of the bulbs I planted are emerging with the promise of more. I smile remembering how shriveled and dead looking they were in the Fall. Now they are changing, transformed by some miraculous organic process that I barely understand. I see the signs, glimpses of life, they draw me further in. I am captivated, caught, coerced to keep moving, slowly, one step at a time. The mystery of what is coming, the colors that will eventually emerge, the hope of beauty on the brink of bursting open. I can’t wait, but I must. There is a mix of bulbs planted. I arrive at the center, surrounded by daffodils, not yet blooming, but easy to imagine their yellow heads soon popping out from their green hoodies. The hyacinths are forming in the fractal way they do, to line the straight paths towards and away from the center. The surprises that await me most are the irises that line the edges of each concentric circle leading to the center. I found them on the side of the road, generously offered by a kind stranger. Ten bags overflowing with random rhizomes waiting to be planted, tended and then welcomed in all of their glory. I won’t know for a while what exactly they will look like. Until then, I’ll walk, I’ll wait, I’ll hope.
Now it’s April of 2023. As the rains continue to fall in between moments of sunshine and a warming wind, I see signs of life unfolding. This living labyrinth that I planted last October has survived the six month mole burrowing, deer munching challenges of its natural canvas. The wooden rounds are a bit wonky, but the path is still clear. The clover planted in the Fall is patchy and interspersed with volunteer unknown forest “weeds” that seem to grow unaided this time of year. I’ve decided to wait and see what comes as the sunshine and growth increase. This experiment of mine has taught me a few lessons about waiting and continues to spark my curiosity with each new contemplative wander. I wonder if I should plant more early bloomers in between the irises so there are flowers blooming around the path all season long or if it is enough to know that more blooms are coming, thus embracing the wait. I wonder if the deer will leave the iris flowers to bloom since they’ve already munched on the greens. I wonder if there will be enough for all of us. Enough nibbles and enough beauty for both? I know there are no guarantees, and yet I’ll choose to hope. I am learning to notice the small shifts both on and in the path and in me. I am learning to love what comes without trying to control the outcome. I am learning to appreciate the slow ripening of time, the shifting soundscape of migrating birdsong, and the surprising encouragement of uncertain survival. I can’t wait to see, smell and feel the glory in the round, in full blooming, brilliant color. Yet, I must. When it finally comes, I’ll be ready. I’d love you to come by for a wander and a welcome, but if you can’t, I’ll share some pics soon.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. -Hebrews 12:1-2
I hope this note finds you well and experiencing God’s grace and peace in your daily life. A week from today I will be heading to Ecuador for the second time. Invited by Baptist Peace Fellowship friend, Eloy Alfaro and RECONPAZ (Continental Network for Peace), I will join 10 others in a pilot project called Global View, a global immersion experiment for students, social change agents, and faith communities to learn from diverse community leaders in the Amazon and the Andes. In preparation, I have been preparing my heart, head and hands through prayerful ponderings, challenging reading, and the creative process. Two books I’ve appreciated and recommend are: Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth by Darcia Narváez and Wahinkpe Topa and Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira.
As part of the program, we will be offering gifts to our hosts as a tangible reminder of our gratitude. I figured I could make some original art to share. I have been exploring the idea of our cloud of witnesses and the people, places and processes that shape who we are and what we bring into every new encounter. Playing with layers of paint, photographic image transfers of the forest where my feet are currently local, and an ancient Celtic symbol that has become a metaphor of encounter for me, these images arrived. In response, I wrote a poem in Spanish, translated it into English and hope to have help translating it in conversation with our indigenous hosts into their heart language. I share these with you not as a show, but rather to ask for your solidarity, support and sacred curiosity of the wisdom and care that can be nurtured and
shared through these encounters. Thank you for being part of my great cloud of witnesses. Without you, I wouldn’t be me.
In gratitude and grace,
Mylinda
Encuentros en el Camino
Por M Baits
El encuentro en el camino conocido
Caminando acompañada
Rodeadas por ancestros antiguos y amigas nuevas
Sostenidas por la tierra santa, el viento respirado, y la compañía compartida
El encuentro en el camino desconocido
Descubriendo fortalezas escondidas
Acompañadas por aprendizaje y apapacho
Sorprendidas por las memorias destapadas, la belleza regalada, y el alma tocada
Hagamos un camino nuevo
Tejiendo nuestras historias, cicatrices y celebraciones
Invitadas a aprender, imaginar y crear un paso a la vez
Animadas por los cantos, colores y conversaciones sobre la marcha
Encounters on the Way
By M Baits
The encounter on the known way
Walking accompanied
Surrounded by old ancestors and new friends
Sustained by holy ground, wind breathed in, and company shared
The encounter on the unknown way
Discovering hidden strengths
Accompanied by learning and soul’s embrace
Surprised by the memories revealed, the beauty gifted, and the soul touched
Let’s make a new way
Weaving our stories, scars and celebrations
Invited to learn, imagine and create one step at a time
Encouraged by the songs, colors and conversations along the way
Thanks to all of you who have sent cards, emails, or Facebook posts updating us on your lives. You have inspired (guilted?) us to update you on what’s been happening with us. Since we haven’t done one of these for a while, it will include news from the past two years.
First, for the big, good news. Daughter Jamie (31) is engaged to be married to R.J. Rongcal. He proposed at the gazebo near our new house (other big news), and she said YES! R.J. teaches second grade in Seattle, and also offers classes in mindfulness and meditation. We got to meet his family in Seattle as Jamie and R.J. hosted us for Thanksgiving. The table was graced with Filipino food from R.J.’s mother, Thelma, as well as our traditional family Thanksgiving dishes. The wedding will take place this coming summer.
Our other big, good news is a house. After renting from our good friends Joan and Jay for 9 years, we took the plunge and bought a house in a woodsy neighborhood in southeast Olympia. It has great light, character, and two guest rooms. We moved in October 29th, and we and our dog, Pinto, are nested, and enjoying a white Christmas.
Our son, Micah (27), and his wife, Kelsey, live in Seattle, and spent part of their Christmas vacation in New York, enjoying something of a honeymoon; the one they didn’t get after their wedding in June of 2020. Since a large family wedding wasn’t possible in June of 2020, we enjoyed a small but beautiful outdoor wedding on Whidbey Island (where Kelsey is from), and a celebratory outdoor dinner hosted by Kelsey’s parents (Carolyn and Billy Pape) at their lovely home.
Kelsey and Micah both teach elementary school in the Seattle area, as do Jamie, and R.J. Yes, lots of teachers. Today’s children are in good hands. And of course, our grown children are still trying to teach us some important things.
A family trip to Southern California allowed both Mylinda and Gary’s families a chance to meet Kelsey, and provided us a chance to enjoy siblings, cousins, and lots of little ones that we don’t get to see often enough.
Circling back to teaching, Mylinda continues her work as a global consultant for training through restorative arts with International Ministries. The pandemic has certainly limited her travel, and she misses interacting with amazing people in places like Cuba, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Mexico. She stays in touch with ministry partners via Zoom and WhatsApp; especially folks in Cuba. The Cubans continue to use the tools and practices of restorative arts to strengthen their communities in spite of political unrest and food shortages. It would be good if both the Cuban and U.S. governments sought the best for the people of Cuba, who inspire us with their faith and resilience.
Mylinda traveled to the Dominican Republic in the spring, holding to some strict Covid protocols, and collaborating with Dominican church leaders, as well as her colleagues, Mercy Gonzalez-Barnes, Stan Slade, and Tim Long.
While grounded from travel, Mylinda read voraciously, mostly about restorative arts, racism, and our country’s ongoing culture of white supremacy. She led a Zoom group that read Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands, and responded to it using embodied practices and art-making. I was part of that group and can vouch for its impact. And yes, we recommend the book.
Mylinda kept fit by playing plenty of Pickleball (level 4 and moving up), riding her bike while Pinto the wonder dog runs alongside, and exploring local forest trails. She visited her friend, Shabrae, in Florida. They planned expressive art sessions together, then led a training at Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in central Washington.
Mylinda was blessed to reconnect with her best friend from college, Sandy Eves. After several years without contact, Mylinda and Sandy are enjoying the beautiful gift of reconciliation.
Gary spent the year teaching Spanish at Pope John Paul II High School; sometimes in person, and sometimes via Google Meet, which leaves much to be desired. The current school year has been in person! We are a faith based school with a conviction that science matters; we mask, vaccinate, and distance to care for each other and our broader community. Gary is an academic advisor, encouraging students to keep learning and growing in spite of the pandemic and its accompanying depression and anxiety. All teens, like adults, are in need of supportive community and meaningful work and learning as we walk through this pandemic together. Finally, Gary enjoys throwing around slang like “snatched, lit, and flex,” mostly because the teens cringe when an old man talks that way. It’s quite groovy and far out; no cap.
We remain involved at First Baptist Church of Olympia, and we’re glad to be worshiping in person again. Mylinda uses her artistic and teaching gifts, and preaches occasionally. She also got to have online expressive arts sessions with some wise senior women. Gary got involved with youth ministry at Oly First, and continues to coach our Ragamuffin softball team. He got to pitch some (almost reaching 12 miles an hour on the radar gun!), and play first base.
Like many of you, we lost too many friends this year. Our mentor and friend, Jack Kiekel, died this fall. We celebrated his life and mourned his death at a beautiful service on Vashon Island (WA). Jack’s wife, and partner in ministry, Beve, misses him terribly. Gary’s cousin Joan died in Hawaii in November, as did Mylinda’s Aunt Jan in California. After living 27 full years, Micah’s dear friend Dr. Dylan Nehrenberg crossed the threshold this week, succumbing to brain cancer. We, along with their family, and friends miss these dear ones, and we are honored to have known them.
Gary plans to attend his 40th high school reunion in San Diego in July. We have heard nothing about a reunion for Mylinda’s graduating class, but we’ll be on the lookout.
Historically, these letters from us have been in quiz form. So, to honor tradition, we present the following multiple choice questions.
At his high school reunion, Gary may do which of the following?
Pay his high school library fines, including 40 years of late fees. Now he has 7 months to actually read The Grapes of Wrath before returning it. Anybody still have the Cliff Notes or the Veggie Tales video?
Dance better than he did at 18, and brush up on his SoCal accent; Dude!
Catch up with old friends to see who still has hair, functioning knees, and Pink Floyd albums.
Apologize to anyone he mistreated.
Mylinda hopes to do which of the following in the coming year?
Offer hospitality in our new home.
Travel, teach, learn, build community and offer teaching tools around the world.
Stay connected with folks like you.
Create art, serve others, speak and act for justice, forest bathe, and play some hard core Pickleball.
As followers of Jesus, we hope for the following in the coming year.
Opportunities to use our gifts to serve others.
Climate justice, racial justice, and an end to poverty.
News from folks like you.
An end to this pandemic. Please, please, for the good of all, mask up and vax up!
The grace to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
That you would know you are loved by the One who created you.
