Verónica de Andrès - Self-Esteem Trainer

Conference 1998 - "Wings of Learning"

"HOW COULD I FORGET?"

- a collection of thoughts and feelings, more than a real report.

A dream, a miracle, a discovery:Héctor the dreamer, the magician, the believer. Héctor, the faith, the courage, the strength - the music-maker. Héctor the back-stage ''shaker and mover'' of this event

A surprise, an amazement: a workshop I could present, for the first time in front of dear participants and with the active participation of two of my beloved children: Florencia and María Sol - my best ever!

Pure magic: an unforgettable opening ceremony. Songs to greet, games to break down barriers, music to acknowledge nations and celebrate nationalities, 120 butterflies blue-tacked to the back of each seat - nearly all written by María Sol - saying "WELCOME TO THE CONFERENCE".

An unbelievable closing ceremony, 12 white candles lit: 11 on behalf of the presenters and a thick white one on behalf of the participants; the glorious music and lyrics of the song "I believe I can fly" and a "wave of human souls'' saying thank-you in an astonishing non-verbal way -

An encounter: old friends, new ones (keep them all - one is silver, and the other is gold!); an encounter with myself, with my blocks, my potential, my dreams, my needs, my hopes, my understanding -

An amazing learning experience: fast learning, accelerated learning?: deep understanding, left and right brain feast, knowledge gained, wisdom awakened, faith renewed. Teaching and healing: two sides of the same coin. Knowing and being - marvellous presenters, marvellous audience

A regret: not being able to invite some speakers I am really fond of, not seeing some people I expected to see, not being able to spend more time lingering with old friends and new ones, not being able to relax and enjoy the sun, the swimming-pool, the 'mates' under the trees; really busy this time, too busy indeed - Well, I have promised myself -

A love-story: the committee. The innumerable hours of work and fun, the timeless meetings no-matter where and when, the 'canneloni' eaten with Mercedes one night at 1.00 am because we were working at dinner-time: Mercedes' incredible 'love and will', the first night finding a butterfly on my pillow saying "breath in, breath out, relax! It will be a wonderful conference" signed by Vivian; Terry's patience, understanding calm and his amazing left-brain: and most important of all, the 'hugs' with the three of them: Vivian, Mercedes and Terry -

Another love-story: the unconditional support of all presenters given completely 'duty-free'. Snapshots: Eva painting a giant butterfly for our closing ceremony - at 5 am!, Robert running from one place to another, taking care of countless details which only he could notice, Grethe casting her magical spell on everything and everyone, making us all turn into courageous winged creatures willing to leap off the cliff, Adrian singing and dancing with us on a ''talent show'', Sarah volunteering a superb session to help us to work out our feelings, Pearl spreading laughter and radiance throughout the whole conference, Elisabeth cutting fresh flowers for the sessions, and last but by no means least, my local dear friends, Susan, Jamie and Clara forgiving me for telling them "two-minutes-before-the-opening" that they had to give a one minute speech to present their themes to the audience, and their radiance, and their glow throughout the whole event -

An answer, what does SEAL mean to me? A mission. A dear friend of mine (Vivian!) always tells me that I would have been such a fine missionary! Well Viv, I think you are right. Indeed SEAL, for me is a mission! No wonder I was driven to play to music of "The Mission" throughout our opening ceremony.

What mission?: To spread SEAL's message!
What message?: "We can all be empowered"
What power?: The power of love!

What does SEAL mean to me?A family, a home, a temple. For me: the temple of love. Robert taught me that there are two main forces that make the world go round: the force of love and the force of fear. And from my point of view, SEAL has chosen the right one - Love: the driving force that we shall need the most to begin a new century.

By now, the reader will probably be a bit confused by this puzzling account of the Conference. Indeed I do not find words to explain it, and sometimes words are just not enough. Most probably, some readers will have already noticed that I have used many words that could be loaded with a somehow ''religious'' connotation: candles, temple, mission - Yet SEAL is not a religious society: on the contrary it is an open-minded association of like-minded people that respect each other's beliefs. SEAL is not a sect, a cult, a ''new-age'' movement. Far from that, it is a group of people that search for truth, inspiration, and "knowledge" based on research, experience, and innovations. But, ''innovations are acts of faith" (I found this quote in a totally academic book!) ; and faith is, no wonder, related to the spiritual dimension. Yes indeed, I do think, feel and believe that SEAL's power lies precisely in this: in acknowledging, addressing the whole person, in all its dimensions: physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. How could I forget?

Allow me to conclude this collection of feelings and thoughts with the lines of a poem that Mercedes, by chance?!, put in my hands today -

(actually it's not a poem but the lyrics of a song by James Bonamy)

That was the conference for me: my roots, my wings. That is SEAL to me!

With much love, gratitude and admiration to you all: presenters, participants, family and friends.

Verónica de Andrés

written for the SEAL Newsletter