In the middle of our daily lives as a village, as beautiful and awake we can all be, sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of arguments, disagreeing, doubting, and assuming with each other. We all are in our individual learning process in nourishing our leadership so that we can be better selves with each other.

Some have gone far in their personal process and some are at the beginning of it. This is diversity we live with everyday. The question then can be “How do we come to be with each other again?’ That is the beauty of Kufunda Village, we all do understand that what we have is a learning process. Everything that happens no matter how beautiful or ugly the situation can be, we do come together and collectively learn from it.

Spring cleansing, is a complete cleaning of a place, as a home, done traditionally in the spring of the year. 2017 has been our spring cleansing season, not as village only but somehow after we began our cleansing process, so did the country. The army and the people stood up against the leadership that has been there for 37 years, though this it not the focus for this article, but it is beautiful to mention the beauty of how the intentions were aligned.

Back in the village, It all started with the arc of time dance that was hosted by Susanna earlier in the year. This when the sense of wanting to see more beauty, and to release some things - physical and emotional became more conscious. Maaianne cleaned her house, the village did the same, physically pilling the old unused furniture and the junk that we had to let go and there more space for beauty, growth and perhaps new things to be born was created.

Then in October we had a retreat with the full village. It is always nice to bring the year to a closure with a reflection and an evaluative learning process and our focus around this time was on our well being and our leadership growth.

We deeply appreciate Paul Hollesen for holding space and allowing us to open up in such a safe space. We were brought into Processwork, which to us is still a very new way of working. Sometimes new processes can be scary. It takes time to trust the impact they can bring. This one turned out to be the richest process we have engaged with in a long while. Its moments of surfacing and exploring hidden issues within the community, gave time, attention and all this happening because of our commitment wanting to heal. Yes to “HEAL”, some of us felt that we been hurt, under appreciated, unseen, others are better and favoured than us and these lead back to a number of events that happened long back before that could not be expressed. All that seemed unspeakable was poured out with such honesty.

We supported each other by really deeply listening and allowing words, and emotions to flow without being conditioned. It is safe to say this process was not only about pointing fingers to what was not working or who had done what, but carefully turning the lens to oneself, looking inward and embracing our flaws, accepting and taking responsibility for each of our actions, letting go what doesn’t serve us as individuals and as a whole and to letting come the new and even more beautiful. We have learnt to give voice to our feelings, and to the voices that were missing too.

We usually do our yearly plans and finances before the end each year but this time it was our spring cleaning season and we collective felt that if we want a healthier year to come, we have to walk through the fire. This a continued process,

Maaianne and Paul have been deepening their knowledge and experience in processwork and they are continuing supporting the village and individuals to practice this.

As a closure we did a small ritual, collecting our own wood that has been lying around and burn it. This was personally collecting our personal flaws and unwanted attachments and burn them. We celebrated walking through this fire together and not leaving each other behind.

Looking back at the process it was not an easy one, sometimes we argued, we cried, and sometimes we laughed. And all this because we are a family as a village, we love each other and we want to grow together as a whole. It has became a practice, we are all practicing to share our, thoughts, pains and our joys filled with honesty and the support form everyone.