This is a one of a little series of Findhorn Dharma Talks, sharing the unfolding of an experiment in exploring via Action Research how a Findhorn Foundation SCIO can serve the community of the Park Ecovillage Findhorn in new ways – especially through being a vehicle for the educational impulse alive in the community. The Dharma Talks were originally articles published in the Rainbow Bridge, the community’s weekly magazine/ezine.

Baking the Bread “From I to We”

What happens when FF3 takes on a remit to explore the possibilities of “baking the bread with, of, and as the Educational Impulse” arising from our community educators, residents, organisations and ancestors?

We are discovering that our bakery needs to let the dough prove several times before the loaves are ready.

Since October our “kitchen” teams have contributed much love in action exploring how a renewed educational presence might emerge in Park Ecovillage Findhorn.

Our baking has unfolded in overlapping — sometimes non-linear — stages.

First, we drafted the banquet menu — also known as the Business Plan and Financial Framework. Our head baker, Mathijs Mulder-Barge, guided the team of chefs (aka Trustees) in clarifying purpose, vision and strategic goals while outlining a modest financial model. The intention is to nourish the community through revenue-generating educational programmes, leavened by donations and supported by a growing global circle of friends.

This week we published our Signature Recipes — the residential programme Experience Week: From I to We — alongside other tempting offerings to come: tasting the Findhorn Garden, Following Your Calling. Finding Sanctuary and Heritage explorations – all enriched by heritage learning and community-embedded practices.

These experiences invite participants to savour the inner, relational and ecological capacities needed to live with care in times of profound change, be it local or global.

Meanwhile our website and communications invite guests to the table through blogs, newsletters, social media and alumni connections. Conversations with Resource People are helping us “break bread” with the wider global community while strengthening local relationships.

Now we begin experimenting with taking our invitations out beyond the ecovillage. Thanks to our Inspiration team, the first Experience Weeks and themed programmes are appearing on the calendar. Early bookings are arriving as we learn how best to share these emerging programmes. While designers, implementers and communicators cook in the heat of our pop-up kitchens (homes, venues and meeting rooms around the ecovillage), another group of specialty chefs is researching future governance options for the organisation that holds this educational endeavour.

One exploration underway is a two-tier membership structure. At a recent community gathering it may have sounded as if this topic was off-limits. In fact, we simply wish to allow more time for research and dialogue and said we expect to return to the conversation after the NFA AGM and the first Experience Week at the end of April.

As FF3 experiments with breads, cakes, yeasts, flavours and grains (including the kind you sometimes go against!), we keep stirring in the Findhorn spirit that guides the whole process:

learning by doing, listening deeply, and shaping the next expression of the educational impulse in partnership with the intelligences of nature.

Along the way new connections and possibilities are emerging locally and regionally — including conversations with UHI and TSI Moray. We thank everyone for help as we post menus and share recipes. May the bread we are baking together nourish this community and the wider world that still looks to Ecovillage Findhorn for living seeds of light and possibility.

 Submitted by marilyn.hamilton@findhorn.org  for the FF3 Trustees & Implementation Team