Being Village
A group of seven Japanese, three Australians, two South Africans, a French woman and a German woman and 8 Zimbabweans have joined us for an 8 day lived experience of Being Village - and how what we learn in this might support our lives and our service in the world.
Today is our last day, and it feels incredible how quickly we have landed right in the heart of a deep sense of family with each other and the land.
During the first two days we built connection to the land and to each other. Settling in. Slowing down. Being here. We opened the space to talk about what concerns us. What is the fear and anger and grief on our hearts? And then we explored how those concerns might be fuel for our active hope -- to sustain us in our changing lives in our changing world.
As many said, we each must find what is our own small piece to do, while keeping eyes open to the whole system around us. We are both midwives to the new that is emerging while, simultaneously, hospicing the death of practices and structures that must be left behind.
As we sit here in our rural sanctuary, there has been the excited tension of change on the streets of Harare and what seems like perpetual, horrific violence and anger and despair all across the world. What alchemy would allow this to become a magical fuel for the changes many of us yearn for? How can we learn from crisis the call of the new?
Saturday afternoon was spent in Open Space, sharing offerings and questions with each other. Everything from cow shit face masks to soften the skin to inquiries into spirituality across culture. And, of course, song.
We have had a family day with friends from the community full of joyful play; a day in Harare seeing what generative seeds are being planted there, and we have spent a day at a nature conservancy to touch the wild and the wisdom and grace that lives here.
As we harvest and make sense of what we are experiencing it is becoming apparent that a part of our journey is to re-weave what has been broken - bonds between humans, who are sisters and brothers first and foremost, and Zimbabweans and Japanese and Australians only second; to re-weave the bond with nature who is always communicating with us, if we but learn to listen; to re-weave the temple of ourselves - our heart - and to keep following the river of life, planting seeds of love and peace. There is a simplicity in what we are living here, that is in part made possible by the container of the rocks and trees that hold us. It may be harder in the fast pace of the city.
But what we are learning here, most of all, is that it is possible.
Kufunda is a Story of the world that is becoming visible when we encounter each other, and all that surrounds us with curiosity, generosity and respect. It is a story we each have been authoring by learning to Be Village together.
