In our Re-Vision Chats series, Xiomara generously shares her experience as an artist in a very challenging system: the public education system in the United States. She narrates instances of trying to change the system, but feeling alone in this. She also shares her lowest point, the suicide of a colleague, that led her into a deep reflection about how people are valued in a system.

Xiomara observes a lot of exhaustion, fear and complacency around her. A way she has found to keep her passion alive is through journaling and through her art. In spite of the difficult environment, she has stayed true to herself and in contact with her ideals. However, she learned she was not listening deep enough to her needs, as she faced a complicated health condition that forced her to look more closely at her habits and ways she relates to her body, inviting her to explore the role of embodiment in education.

Xiomara yearns for a community of change agents that can support her in envisioning and carrying out new experiments. The pandemic looks like a promising time to explore new ways of doing things. As part of a community, her efforts are not as draining, and it doesn’t take her so long to recuperate after a setback. It is evident for her and for many of us that many systems need radical change, but it takes a village to bring those systemic changes to life. We need spaces with new types of conversations and relationships where our gifts are seen and blessed, for our passion to come to life.

Hear the full conversation here: Re-Vision Chats series 

Exercise:

Draw your body. Point out symptoms you have with an arrow.

What are these symptoms trying to tell you? 

What does this have to do with the changes you want to see in the world? 

How could you go about them in a new way that is more compassionate with yourself?

What are gifts of yours that are trying to come out?