I was very honoured to write the Foreword to the Findhorn Foundation 50th Anniversary Celebration Book. It gave me an opportunity to express some of my appreciation.
A FOREWORD OF GRATITUDE
Truly there is something magical about the Findhorn community.
In the middle of gardening, or cleaning, or teaching, or administering, a shift may suddenly happen and a wave of love and magic starts to flow through the people and the situation. In these wonderful and joyful moments there may be unplanned silence and healing, or song, dance, music, prayer, or impromptu comedy, as hearts open and people feel a serendipitous exhilaration at the sheer wonder of being alive; and everything can be sensed as possessing sentient life: plants, rocks, clouds, washing machines, buildings, the pulsing and spiralling hum of the universe. These blessed happenings may last only a few minutes or continue for weeks.
For some people their whole experience of Findhorn is suffused with this exhilarating grace and creativity.
But enmeshed in this magic is also the reality of being human. Alongside the grace and irrepressible magic, there is no naivite at Findhorn about the travail and endurance required to develop and transform a human being and build a utopian community. From the very beginning the creation of this new model of living — spiritually diverse, ecologically vibrant, creative, socially engaged and emotionally intelligent — has been grounded in tough work and personal sacrifice.
It was with heroic purity and resolute intention that the Findhorn community was founded. Eileen’s grace, Dorothy’s perception, Peter’s positive thinking — forgive this simplistic abbreviation of their gifts — were harnessed together for the tough and unfaltering labour of personal and collective development. And over fifty years the results are impressive.
It is wonderful and inspiring that because of its pioneering work in the field of ecology and sustainability, as a global model of best practice, that the Findhorn Foundation is officially associated with the United Nations and the Scottish government. The eco-buildings are truly amazing, not just in their green efficiency but also in their styles and quirkiness. (When no one is watching are these houses alive? Do they go for walks at night?)
Idealistic women and men come here from all over the world to be educated and inspired.
Of course building gardens and houses is hard work, but even tougher is the process of personal development and relationship. I have heard people say about the Findhorn educational programmes, ‘These workshops are not the real workshops. The real workshops are at home and at work in relationships with family, friends and colleagues. Being in relationship is The workshop.
Certainly if community is about anything, it is indeed about relationship. Therefore, as well as its initiatory work in sustainability, Findhorn is also a centre of healing and therapy as people learn the skills of personal development and right relations. You never know which gardener, cook, administrator, dancer or builder is also a highly skilled counsellor, therapist or healer. And these capabilities are crucial as the burning ground of relationship reveals our shadows and daemons.
But, gracefully, relationships in the Findhorn community are never restricted just to people. That would be too limiting and ignorant of other dimensions and possibilities. Permeating the community is also the primary relationship with — what shall we call it? — the Source, the Mystery, the Unknowable, the Tao, Flow, Field, Spirit, God, Goddess, Cosmic Christ, Buddha Consciousness, the Divine and Unconditional Love. And beyond and within that underlying reality, there are even more relationships: with nature, earth, water, air, fire, ocean, rocks, animals, plants, devas, spirits, angels and machines, gods, goddesses, pagan and shamanic beings.
And this is Findhorn’s other magnificent model of best practice. It embraces and provides a loving chalice, pot and cauldron for the full diversity of human spirituality.
This book celebrates the fiftieth birthday of this groundbreaking, inspiring and unique community. May the future hold fifty times fifty more anniversaries, inspiring generations beyond our imagination, building heaven on earth, resolutely affirming the unity of all life.
For more information about the Findhorn anniversary book and to purchase it click here
