Love

I'm not quite sure where to begin because even though I've only been here five days or so, an almost unimaginable amount of things have happened. I already feel like the five people I'm living in my bungalow with are my family, and I'm no less close to many of the other people here. It's wild. The greater Findhorn community is really interesting, we all have a lot of questions every day and I think we'll continue to learn new things about it until the last day we are here.

But to start.

Our group has eighteen participants and two focalisers. We are all from the USA except for Anna, who is from Sweden, and Melissa (one of our focalisers), who is from South Africa. Everyone is wonderful. We have done a lot of bonding work and getting settled work. It's all at once very different and very similar to YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalist) things I have done before, which is a challenge for me because I am used to things being a fairly specific way when I am doing intense community work. I think I can describe Findhorn as YRUU's older relative. It's like this because a lot of the people here are older; a few years ago there was even talk of it becoming a retirement village (but then a lot of families had babies and a lot of younger people moved in). So a lot of the practices aren't designed for youth or based around youth needs, and a lot of the Findhorn group agreements or practices are ways of doing things that I think I see so far as more mature than the way YRUU does a lot of things, maybe based on a deeper respect and understanding. Though I think YRUU does some things in a way that works better for me. I'm not sure yet whether it is good or bad or neither to compare YRUU and Findhorn as much as I have been. I think it's natural because YRUU is the only other community experience I really have, though it's strange because I haven't really even thought about YRUU very much in the past year, and I definitely didn't think I would be talking about it this much or at all in this journal. Either way, it's very interesting to me to see the similarities and differences.

One of the things we have done the most often is attunement. Attunement is a process that is done at the beginning of every organized group activity here. We all hold hands in a circle and the focaliser of the group leads us in a short meditation-like moment. We know it's over when the focaliser starts a hand-squeeze that travels around the circle. It is, for me, a really great way to focus my attention and energy into the activity or work that is about to happen. Attunement is also done at the end of most activities (everything so far but meals), and at the end of work shifts sometimes we all yell "HOORAY!!" and it is really great and joyful. The other time we have used attunement is to choose our work departments. It was basically a longer version of the tune in or out we use for activities, a focaliser led us in a sort of meditation on the choices of work departments, and we were invited to see if any option leapt out at us or if we felt any special connection or pull to any of the departments she named. We were also advised to not worry about making the "right choice" and just to trust in ourselves. I think attunement is really neat in general. Our house did it after a house meeting last night, and sometimes there is a suggestion to attune together after we have intense conversations when we are just hanging out. It usually ends up silly when we do it on our own, and it's silly a lot of the time when we do it with focalisers, which has also made it a lot easier to get used to.

Anyway, I chose/attuned to work in the Cluny Hill gardens, which means I work on the grounds, in the vegetable and flower gardens, and with the bees at Cluny Hill, which is a hotel and community that is part of the Findhorn Foundation but is a ten minute bus ride away in the village of Forres. It's a beautiful old place, with a totally different feel from the Park, which is where we are most of the time and where we live. It's sleepy and quiet, and while the Park isn't a bustling city or anything, Cluny certainly is more chill and relaxed. And whether or not it happened by attunement, I definitely feel like the gardens there are the right place for me. It's great to have a chance to get out of the Park and see more of the area, and I can already tell the work will be fabulous. Sverre (?), the garden focaliser, is a man who has a lot of wisdom to share. On our first day he took the four of us (me, Sarah, Seth, and Caitlin C.) around on a tour and told us lots of great and inspiring stories and things about gardening with love and his experiences in how working with plants with love makes a difference. The 'motto' of Findhorn is "Work is love in action" and it's so apparent in the landscape, in the people, in the energy and feel of the whole place.

I still need to tell you about sacred dance and angel meditations and some other things but it's pretty late here and I'm getting up at seven thirty for yoga in the morning so I'll catch up a little later. I hope the weather's gotten better at home since I've left and you're all doing well.

Love,
Nora

P.S. The food here is sort of surreal. There are beets EVERY DAY! and I ate the best potato of my entire life today. This is a really big deal because potatoes are my favorite food and I have eaten a lot of them in my life. I'm not eating any sugar (that's not from fruit or other whole foods) or wheat while I'm here to see how that affects me mentally and physically and though I'm kind of experiencing some withdrawal and cravings it's just not as hard as I thought it would be because the kitchens (staffed by people who have attuned to work there) are just so flexible and have so many options, all well-labeled for people with different dietary needs. A lot of people on the Living Routes trip are taking this as a time to experiment with their diets and try out new ways of healthier eating so we are all supporting each other and it's really exciting and fun and is making all of our bodies feel really great, or at least really interesting.