On December 16, 2021, Supertyphoon Rai (local name Odette) escalated to a category 5 storm as it entered the Philippines. More than six million people woke up to massive devastation, among them almost 400 dead, 600,000 displaced,  and 712,000 with their homes damaged and their landscapes ravaged. This scale of devastation and the corresponding shock will take years to recover from. How do individuals heal when a future of more climate emergencies is predicted for this climate-vulnerable region? How can our community presence the grief of recurrent loss?

On December 30th, 2021, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history devastated two Boulder County neighborhoods, Superior and Louisville. Extreme drought conditions and high winds ignited the fires’ rapid movement throughout these densely populated neighborhoods. One death is confirmed, and another person is still missing. A total of 1084 homes were destroyed. Many people lost their beloved pets. Nearly 50,000 people were under evacuation orders, and approximately 30,000 people have been displaced by the fires. In this Global Social Witnessing call, we came together to hold space for the profound loss, shock, and displacement experienced by the affected communities. Through presence-based practice, we acknowledged the grief carried by individuals and families, as well as the ecological and systemic conditions that contributed to the scale of destruction.

The war in Ukraine is a collective trauma resurgence in Europe, painfully resurfacing the unintegrated wounds of past conflicts. In our worldwide community we explored how we can activate our collective immune system to meet the challenges of this moment on both the inner and outer levels.

While the world’s media and global attention are focused on the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, wars elsewhere are ongoing and no less painful. We moved our attention not away from Ukraine, but included the ongoing war in Congo and the effects it has on communities, and, most especially, women in communities. 

Anti–Semitism is based on stereotypes and myths that target Jews as a people, their religious practices and beliefs, and the Jewish State of Israel. Robin Alfred & David Sherman, through this call, brought presence to the topic of Anti-semitism and explored it in an embodied way.

This call took us to the island country of São Tomé and Príncipe, Africa’s second smallest nation, where we explored multiple layers of history and deepened our awareness of the historical wounds left by slavery. The aim was to encourage an embodied individual and collective attunement to the impact of this traumatic history on our collective psyche and to explore practical tools for healing and moving forward. We will continue to work toward addressing the legacy of slavery within this important historical context.