Synchronicity? Right timing? This is how a community-based initiative happened. One of our Findhorn Village neighbours told me the day after my first NFA Council meeting that an opportunity had come up to get a hostel in the village. Could the Findhorn Community plan and run courses for disadvantaged groups on low incomes? This is a section of the public we have not been able to address before, so the prospect is really exciting. When I told Hannah, one of our Listener-Conveners, she arranged a meeting with the Foundation Education team and several others interested in community education. Happily, the Foundation backed the initiative, offering use of the Foundation facilities available to the wider community. There are many more "education for the community" ideas in the air including meditation, visualisation, nature experience, spiritual development ... endless opportunities for you to participate and help. I'm setting up a database of skills, so if you have expertise we could use, please ask for an application form.
Mo Willett
A single White Rose
arose, I suppose
as ambassador of the mysteries
that only God knows.
All alone there sat I
looking up at blue sky
unaware this fragrant beauty
would soon catch my eye.
All at once there she was
swaying gently because
the breeze whispered a love song
and kissed my heart as Love does.
She had helped me recall
after all, one moment small
will be magical forever
when I say thank-you for it all.
Original Garden, June 1999, Elizabeth Hill
What do we want our Community to be like in 2020? What do we need to do now to manifest our desired future? We all have our personal dreams and desires, but we lack a collective vision - a vision that is in alignment with Spirit, unites and focuses our individual visions, and inspires strategies for achieving them.
I believe the single most important thing the NFA can do is to help us share our hopes and dreams with each other, and to distil the essence of them into a collective vision and action plan. This is what inspired me to stand for the Council, and this is what I'm most passionate about. I believe we're on the verge of a great leap forward as a Community; that our potential is almost unlimited if we can unleash our creativity and energy, and open the channel to Spirit more fully. By 2020 we could be a truly sustainable eco-village demonstrating to the world spiritual ways of living in harmony with each other, our neighbours, and the Earth. Let's go for it! Creatively. Passionately.
The Council aims to stimulate and facilitate a Community-wide visioning process. We hope to get you all involved in naming and grounding our collective vision for our future. This is not just about the future of the Foundation, or the Park It's about the whole - all 40 businesses and organisations, all 400 electors, all our many material assets, and all our skills and creativity. And it's about all our hopes, dreams and aspirations, and how we can manifest them together.
We envisage a process which will look at the big picture in, say, 10 or 20 years time, and identify all the pieces that make it up. Following this, the 'pieces' will be clustered into several more specific projects (such as the Park Envisioning process described elsewhere in this Newsletter), each coordinated and facilitated by a small group of passionately interested visionaries. These projects will develop more detailed visions, and identify the practical steps which must be taken over the years to reach our goals. Exciting stuff!
We'll keep you informed as things progress, but in the meanwhile we'd love to hear about your passions, concerns, interests, needs ... so we can start identifying the pieces of the whole and the passionate visionaries amongst us.
Malcolm Hollick
Irene Dittrich has resigned from the Council for personal reasons. and been replaced by Courtenay Young as the next available candidate from the March election.