24 Mar 2008
Session Two began with a very moving piece where four people read out a list of endangered or extinct species while Joanna played a drum slowly. This then led into an extraordinarily powerful exercise called The Bowl of Tears. Three large bowls of water were placed in the middle of the floor, representing the tears of Gaia, and a musical lament was played to accompany a slide show of images of social and ecological breakdown, deforestation, pollution and so on.
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24 Mar 2008
The morning of the second day moved into Honouring our Pain for the World, and concluded with a deeply moving ritual, .
The Great Turning takes great courage, and we have great courage. There will be no flourishing unless we open our eyes to our world. We need to acknowledge what is coursing through our bodies and minds so that we can address our own grief. Only than can we go together to apply the hands of our attention to our world.
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24 Mar 2008
In the session after supper, Joanna gave a clear and passionate explanation of the Great Turning, and what she means by the term. You can read another, more detailed account of this session on the conference’s official blog.
We spoke before about the importance of gratitude. I want to speak now of the importance of gratitude for what is happening in our world today. In Paul Hawken’s ‘Blessed Unrest’ he describes this movement as being the largest social movement in history. It is not a movement reported in the corporate controlled mainstream media. It is momentous. It is a revolution.
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24 Mar 2008
The second day of the conference began with Dorothy McLean, one of the founders of Findhorn, who describes herself as a ‘modern mystic’, talking about the evolution of Findhorn and her work communicating with Nature. You can read more about that here. This was followed by a quiet mindful walk outside, in the freezing wind, which was very calming and peaceful, although it benefited greatly from the kindness of the lady who gave me a hat.
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21 Mar 2008
If you are a control freak, you will hate organising an Open Space event! It involves a lot of trust that the process will work but at the same time I have never seen or heard of one not working. Open Space is a powerful tool for engaging large groups of people in discussions to explore particular questions or issues. It can be used with groups from anything between 10 and 1,000 people. Open Space has Four Rules and One Law (the Law of Two Feet).
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