Last week when I was interviewing, futurist Dr. Anneloes Smitsman about her r3.0 Educational Transformation Blueprint, she remarked about the importance of feedback and celebrating the special moments of life in community. They are like rites of passage. That reminded me to tell her of our experience here in Findhorn Ecovillage this year.

I explained that we had had two fires that destroyed our Community Center and our Sanctuary. I shared that this was really a huge loss for the consciousness and culture of our community, as well as the infrastructure – and totally changed how we could even behave. We couldn’t cook together anymore, gather for meetings, workshops, rituals, celebrations – all those sorts of bonding community practices. Moreover, the fires left huge brownfields that reminded us of our losses every time we walked by those sites.

But over the summer months, those places have been gradually cleared. And then an invitation was issued for volunteers to work with the Park gardeners on Tuesday mornings to help re-plant and reimagine the whole area that had been the Community Centre – our beloved CC.

So, we’ve gradually watched behind the security fences, as chaos and clutter have been cleared away. The garden team decided to leave an area for some wildflowers, and an even larger central area would just become grass. They decided not to use turf – they would simply seed grass and invite Nature to grow it.

So last week, I walked by, after some time since I had been to the Community Centre site. You know, when you seed grass, for a while, it doesn’t look like anything is happening – so I had become accustomed not to see anything special there. Then, I noticed this little sign affixed to the fence. It had little baby carriages on it. And it said, “Shhh tiny baby grass is growing, and would not like to be interrupted.” I laughed out loud.

Because behind that sign, all of a sudden, I could see the entire field had sprung to green life. It was such a WOW!! It took my breath away and gave me the hugest smile. The sign and that expanse of fresh green touched me so deeply.

The little sign itself was like a way of both inviting participation in what the intention was for recovery in that area and also for cooperating with the Intelligences of Nature. When I saw that the grass had grown, and all sorts of other plants and flowers had decided to join in the celebration, you could say that Nature herself was giving us feedback. And the feedback that people had given Nature was now apparent too.

I just felt that was a great way to celebrate what had meant so much to us in that area. And it gives me huge hope and expectation of ongoing thrivability – that even though we’ve had to let go of some things that were central to our place we can be open to what else now wants to come.

So, thank you to the sign makers for capturing so much of our Findhorn Principles in one small message and one heart-centred place. I greatly appreciate the opportunities for Deep Inner Listening, Work as Love in Action and Co-creating with the Intelligences of Nature – all wrapped up in the tiny baby grass carriages.

This blog is inspired by the Interview Marilyn Hamilton had with Dr. Anneloes Smitsman.

Another excerpt is published here.

This link is a pdf of the full interview: Interview Anneloes Smitsman sep30

Marilyn Hamilton interviews Dr. Anneloes Smitsman, visionary scientist, futurist, author, system architect and leadership catalyst about the r3.0 Educational Transformation Blueprint with 7 Transformative Learning perspectives for Regeneration and Thrivability. Together they explore how the 13 Recommendations of this Blueprint can relate to cities and collective learning processes, and how to invite the future into our learning as future ancestors for the 7th Generation.
 
To learn more about the r3.0 Educational Transformation Blueprint visit – https://bit.ly/2Woxlfo
To learn more about Anneloes and her work, visit – https://bit.ly/3kLI50y