The Village Continuum 2015 – our second year.
I am dreaming…yes, I have a dream! I have been moved and inspired by our first Village Continuum in 2014.
(http://narrativeyoga.com.au/village-continuum-new-cycle-begun/)
I am committed to making my dream come true. My dream is to live in a world where we are all a part of the process, the continuum, where consumption is only a small part, and making is valued as an inherent and vital process in its own right. I am thinking of a world where there is a part and a place for everyone.
I need you. I want to be present with you. Relate. I want to share my dreams with you and my vulnerabilities and I am ready to listen to yours. I am seeing people relate on a new level, sharing and co-creating. It is from this place that The Village Continuum was born about a year ago.
I was sitting around the fire with my teacher and friend Peter and my dear friend Kate after a day of Longbow and shoe making. We were reflecting on a big day that we had shared, longbows were on their way to be finished the next day and leather boots were taking shape. We had finished our dinner together and I recall a great sense of accomplishment. We were reflecting on meaningful connections, great learning’s through a day of making things with our hands, challenges and laughter – the smell and warmth of our camp fire and natures orchestra – a fully rounded day was about to be completed. It was that moment where we started dreaming of something bigger. We started to share our ideas, our dreams and visions and it was that sense of aliveness, talking about new ways of relating and co-creating, that lead us to the idea of a gathering for people willing to be part of change and creating new paradigms in our society. The workshop participants that stayed for the night started co-creating with us. They loved the idea and inspired us with their contributions to take it further.
We compared it to how we imagined it would be to live in a village, some people spending time making useful tools for living, others holding space by teaching or assisting in the making, or caring for the needs of children, some preparing nourishing food. There were no strict schedules – those there for the making could stop and rest, or have a spontaneous game with others, at will. We realized that everyone there had stepped up and played an important part in the whole, that there was a natural inclusion and intimacy present. We were all there for a purpose and had cast aside our busy “day to day” existence for a slower and perhaps more grounded experience of life.
There is a sense that all these people gathered together, who passionately and in their own unique way, lived with the intention and desire to engage with and respond to Mother Earth in order to meet their important needs – needs for deep connection, autonomy, honesty, play, peace, physical wellbeing, and meaning.
It seemed only right, fitting, and an exciting prospect, to bring all these energies and those of others with similar intentions together.
Through the warmth of human interaction we intend to share ideas and skills, play and learn, and grow in understanding and confidence.
The only constant in life is change. We have been working on our Village and learnt from last year’s experience. Thinking of our second Village Continuum energizes me. I don’t need to start a revolution to make my dream come true. I am going to change the way I relate with myself and therefore the way I relate with my surroundings in order to follow my dream and live it. Embodying it and being able to hold the gift I received last year leads me to the present day; The Village Continuum 2015 only a few weeks away.
Reflecting today I notice a development in my understanding of our basic human needs. As a society, I believe we are ready to evolve the simple idea of “Food, Sex and Shelter” as our primary needs. I believe there is more. Let’s explore that together!
The Village Continuum is about co-creating and living new paradigms, sharing them with our families and humanity as a whole. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to co-create and collaborate to thrive. I encourage you to co-create with me. I am looking for new values to shape our society, the formation of new paradigms. I would like to put my ideas out there and invite you to comment on it – start co-creating right here – and join us during the weekend. Let the dream of a village be an evolving continuum for humanity.
The Village Continuum offers a wide variety of workshops facilitating a unique connection to nature, community and self through crafts like longbow and shoe making, arrow and quiver making, fire making, working with scythes, basket weaving and dyeing. The Art of Relating and Ancestral Movement are going to enrich the weekend and it will make it a holistic experience. Thus, this value is far greater than the surface experience; they carry our meaning and our energy while fully embodying the making. What we craft are not simply objects; they are part of who we are.
From here is birthed an experience of the art of making, allowing us to move closer to an authentic lifestyle. I am dreaming of a Movement of Makers, crafting a vision for the future, where each action made on a physical and emotional level is constructing a better world. I was touched deeply by human connections, and moved by the way I could co-create something that lead to more inspiration, to deeper friendships and a healthier society all together.
Here is my development on human needs for the 21st century and some of the ways The Village Continuum offers a unique yet historically grounded response to them:
1)
I believe that relating is our most basic need. First of all we need to relate to ourselves as part of nature. From there we can start relating with our loved ones – our tribe. Discovering in the process of communal creating that there is a place and part for everyone. I have invited Gero and Stacia from The Art of Relating (http://www.theartofrelating.com.au), and I am more than happy to confirm they will be facilitating daily workshops. They are experts in their field, facilitating workshops from Melbourne all the way to Berlin. I am looking forward to sitting with you and exploring new ways of relating, getting to know you and therefore getting to know myself a little better. We are all on the journey together, vital co-creators.
2)
The need for natural movement, the way you feel your body and the way you understand how to relate to this vehicle that you are traveling in is important to thrive rather than simply survive. If you would like to develop your connection to your body and get a whole new perspective on how to be in and with your physicality please don’t miss Simon Thakur from Ancestral Movement (http://ancestralmovement.com), daily workshops will be available.
3)
The need for food and shelter. Do we even contemplate this need anymore? I think we have reached a standard in our first world society where majority of us don’t really have to worry about these needs being met. I believe that I need to depth this need further, exploring what it means to cultivate love, compassion and respect in my privileged context; asking “who am I? Who are we? Where are we at as a society? How can I cultivate compassion? We experience no war, no bombs are dropped onto us unexpectedly, and we are unlikely to experience those terrors in the near future. We are free to evolve, individually and collectively. We can dream into our reality and this is so much needed. Let’s start today. Pro-active. With respect and trust, love and compassion.
Yes, we need to eat. And yes, we need shelter. I am writing this while sitting inside listening to the northerly wind gusting at a temperature of almost 40 degrees. I don’t believe the current “Great Australian Dream” is a sustainable aspiration. The shelves in the shops are full and we have a billion dollar industry around wellness and western medicine and yet, our mental and physical un-wellness and disease increases daily. In response to this disparity, I have invited Taj, a Permaculture enthusiast (www.thepermapixie.com), to share her wide range of knowledge around growing food in harmony with nature and Rob who will introduce us to a new way of building/creating dwellings sure to spark a new relationship to the possibilities of living sustainably.
4)
The need for Rites of Passage
I feel that this is a basic human need for survival on planet earth. It is something that I would like to call in for humanity, for every soul that is growing up facing adulthood. The way we treat Mother Earth is closely connected to how we are able to find our own path when separating from our parents. We need the sense of belonging. I believe that reconnecting to Mother Earth and understanding the power from Father Sky through rites of passage creates healthy village culture that is able to thrive in the continuum of life. Understanding and observing nature and learning from our ancestors helps us to understand ourselves as part of nature.
Here is my dream again; living in a world where we are all a part of the process, the continuum, where relating from a place of wholeheartedness is normal and where consumption is only a small part, and making is valued as an inherent and vital process in its own right.
There is a part and a place for everyone in The Village Continuum.
With love and respect,
Lars