Occasionally I share insights into what it is like to live in Park Ecovillage Findhorn (PEF) in Scotland. This short article originally published in the community's weekly magazine, Rainbow Bridge, inquires about the kind of legacy PEF is creating as we consider our future through decision making, voting and relating to one another. How [...]
We continue the story of Ecovillage Findhorn seeking its Community Purpose and Aims. Last Sunday, at another community gathering, we moved on from exploring Purpose to defining Primary Aims. Guided by Gordon McAlpine/NFA and Tessa Brock/EF, we welcomed back 55 Questors including 11 Harvest Hosts. In groups of 5 we took the challenge [...]
As Findhorn Ecovillage has explored its Community Purpose, it considers how relationships between people and organizations shift and change within the community. Some responses, resistances and resources have surprised me. But then I remembered one of my core learnings about Community comes from Parker Palmer. Many years ago he wrote a quizzical but profound [...]
From the 5 Inspirations and 8 Potential Purpose Statements the Findhorn Community discovered 5 Key Themes. Exploring how they resonated with the expressions of those themes revealed where was most energy for Patterns of Purpose. We are a Spiritual Community. We connect with the Intelligences of Nature. We Evolve and Support [...]
As Ecovillage Findhorn Community explored 5 Inspirations for its Community Purpose, it drafted 8 potent and potential Purpose Statements. (Inspired by Strategic Framework): We are an inclusive, vibrant spiritual community exploring co-creation with all life, seen and unseen. We are a caring community here for the benefit of all. We take personal and [...]
This clutch of blogs explores the thinking and background that goes into developing an Ecovillage as it matures from teenager to young adult: How to re-think the stewardship of Commons? How to transfer land holdings from a founding organization to the community? How to design Governance for a community of organizations? How to develop [...]
“The life and spirit of the Commons is already within us. We ARE the Commons, for we are part of this planet, part of Gaia. It’s now a matter of acknowledging that this is so and acting accordingly.” (Spangler, David) From this beautiful spirit of the Commons, I would like to share some insights [...]
Laura Pasetti’s second initiative invited a multitude of artists in The Park Ecovillage Findhorn (TPE Findhorn) to install themselves in cosy community nooks for a series of 3 minute performances. The covid/lockdown restrictions impacted artists of all kinds because they could not access their usual means of public engagement – galleries, theatres, restaurants [...]
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. [...]
The morning of the Findhorn Fires, April 12, 2021, I was amazed that most of the trees adjoining the Sanctuary and CC seemed to have survived the devastating flames. Coming from British Columbia, where I had witnessed many forest fires, I would have expected many of these trees to become instant torches. But as [...]