Global Village at the Shire

July 7, 2005
Global village gathering at the Shire…living with abundance…sitting with uncertainty and complexity…learning, unlearning and much more…

Building a learning community and planting the seeds…
So much happened since I wrote my last update…in less then two weeks

After we came back from Halifax, it was time for us to sit as a ‘community’ and talk about how we want to live as a community. ‘Living with no assumptions’ as Tim says…so 8 of us, including 8 month old Emma, got together and worked out the principles we want to live by. Next thing we did was hosting a space to discuss our time ahead focusing on questions like ‘what does Shire need from us?’ ‘what do we want to learn while we are at the Shire?’ ‘what can we create together?’
There was a lot of energy in this conversation and a long list of what we will do to serve Shire, what we want to learn and what we want to offer appeared…it was also powerful to unfold our deepest purposes to be here and share that with each other.
Right after these processes we went into a whirl of physical activities to prepare the space for this week’s hosting. Beside many things we created our first permaculture garden which I bound to describe here because it was a stunning experience for me.
After we figured that the soil on the land where we planned to create the garden was poor, sandy and rocky, we decided to follow a ‘permaculture recipe’ from our permaculture book. This is what we did:
- we laid down a layer of cardboard boxes and wetted it thoroughly.
- On top of that, we put a layer of hay and grass clippings and also wetted it thoroughly.
- We then mixed manure, soil and organic matter and laid it on top of lay. Guess what, and then we wetted it thoroughly.
There, the garden then was ready to plant the seeds in. believe it or not! Well, it was hard for me to believe…so we planted some carrot, spinach, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, pumpkin and beans. We put the seeds in, in a sporadic way that they will accompany each other against pest. We put in some marigold plant which is also a natural pest repellent. Putting in the seeds was the most exciting moment…moment of creation, putting in not knowing the return, making a pact with mother earth…very naively. A Mexican friend whom I met at the Shire this week, Sergio, told me that he always puts three seeds in to the same spot: one for himself (and his family), one for the earth and one for the birds…that is what I will be doing next time, like the indigenous people of Mexico…
Our little garden is yet to show its magic…cucumbers are in germination already…although I was a little sceptic in the beginning (oh my God, we are going to grow veggies in cardboard mulch?), now I trust the wisdom of permaculture. I can’t wait to taste the first fruits of our garden…

Global Village gathering at the Shire…

The first international hobbits started arriving last Saturday…from England, Denmark, USA, Canada…our first guests came to gather around ‘the Art of Hosting’…’the art of hosting’ has been developed as a training for all who aspire to learn and find new ways for being and working with others to create innovative and comprehensive solutions. Our guests were experienced hosts of ‘art of hosting’ (they have been training people on hosting and convening meaningful conversations) and they gathered at Shire to deepen their understanding of ‘art of hosting’ gatherings and what it really means and what its impact in the world is and how can it be developed further…these trainings look at models (methods, ways of being) like open space, council circle, world café, etc…although we weren’t involved in their meetings, we conversed over the meals and around the fire…
A few days later, Berkana(1) crew joined us and we have become a truly global village. It was such a wonderful feeling to host the world in our backyard; people from Brazil, India, Denmark, Canada, England, USA, Mexico, Greece, Estonia, Ireland, chatting, laughing in passionate conversations around the fire…there was a quick click, love at first sight in the air. Berkana supports leaders/social entrepreneurs in their local communities who are committed to creating spaces for authentic, non-manufactured, real learning grounded in the local traditions, wisdom and resources. There is a common quality that connects them with an invisible thread which is their awareness of the manufactured, mechanistic system we live in and their commitment and effort to ‘walk out’ of this system into a more organic, authentic, sustainable living. And they are doing it. Slowly but surely. Step by step. And there is so much humility and abundance in their work…which brings to mind to what degree ‘the international development work’ is working with the conditions most of the agencies and organizations are operating in. Berkana brought these leaders to Shambhala’s authentic leadership program where they can connect and learn from each other. Their last stop was the Shire, the newest learning center in this network.
Together we lived, learned and played in Open Space for two days. Our question was ‘what do I need to do to sharpen my hosting?’ (Hosting means, in its broader sense, to host ourselves, to host each other, to host conversations, etc…) some people talked about their projects, while some others did gardening as others cooked…

Abundance versus scarcity…
I hosted a conversation about living and working in abundance…one person showed up who was Sergio, who was just the right person for this conversation, giving me a lot of insight from his own life and work…
I first read about the notion of operating from an abundance (or sufficiency) perspective in a book called ‘the soul of money’ by Lynne Twist. It was also this book that challenged my view on the international aid work which consciously or unconsciously creates ‘dependency’ on external resources in the communities where ‘the help’ is given which then imposes a subtle and sneaky assumption of ‘lacking the wisdom and resources within the community’ in the minds of people. Unfortunately this system totally undermines people’s sense of self-value and dignity which then creates this vicious circle of passivity and cynicism and mindset of scarcity…(not claiming all international aid work is like that but this is true for most of it)
I am really fascinated by the notion of removing the scarcity mindset as a start in any development work. Things start progressing, flourishing, once we start focusing on what we have rather than what we lack, accepting our gifts and making the best out of them, meaning start operating from a sufficiency mindset…

I thought I had understood this concept well…until I realized this week that I, myself, was operating with a scarcity mindset. I’ve been long dwelling on what I lack to become …whatever that I aspire to become. It struck me that this was holding me in no man’s land. So, my point is, abundance start in our minds. Starts with ourselves and expands to how we see ourselves, others, our life, our world, our universe. In many situations, I recalled being apologetic about what I was missing rather than acknowledging what I have to offer. Ridiculous but real…I came to realize this seeing how the Shire is coming into being. There aren’t many facilities around, but we have a functioning kitchen, compost toilettes, a shower, and a marquee as a meeting space…all put together by us, using a lot of recycled material…not the fanciest stuff but it is hosting all of us and the meetings wonderfully. In material terms, we could definitely talk about scarcity but in quality, value, offering and sense of well being, we are in abundance here…
Having realized this, I am determined to bring this quality into my life. Living in abundance anywhere, anytime…

Here are some insights from my conversation with Sergio:
Abundance is living with voluntary simplicity, by breaking free from consumption hysteria and attachment, in a paradoxical way the less we ‘possess’ the more abundant we live…
What we (I) need is right here.
Trust is the key in abundance.
Abundance comes with giving.
If you believe in abundance, you can sit with uncertainty.

Learning and unlearning…
I was looking forward to talking to Manish even before he arrived. He is the founder of Shikshantar in Udaipur, India which is one of the learning centers supported by Berkana. From the little I read about him, and about Shikshantar, I was totally energized and motivated about their understanding of the educational crisis and their approach on how to work with it. The idea of Shikshantar, the way they express it is just an elaborate expression of my thoughts and gut feeling about education, which brings clarity to my own criticism and resonates deeply with what I want to do.
The following is from Shikshantar’s website (http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar):
After fifty years of so-called development efforts, and despite great scientific advancements, India (and the rest of the world) finds itself mired in a paralyzing socio-cultural, environmental and spiritual crisis - overwhelming in its scale, intensity and rate of growth.
While education has been framed as the cure to this crisis, in reality, the factory model of schooling is part of the problem. Around the world, education systems have become commercialized 'businesses' which serve to stratify society, glorify militarism, devalue local knowledge systems and languages, manufacture unsustainable wants, breed discontent and frustration, stifle creativity, motivation and expression, and dehumanize communities. The 19th-century model of factory-schooling today stands in the way of building organic learning societies for the 21st century.

Shikshantar is working to provoke, challenge and dismantle factory-schooling and to construct and connect new open learning communities. Beautiful!
They are working with the notion of unlearning which I find very powerful…
Unlearning is about becoming more conscious of the different assumptions, abstractions, stereotypes, and expectations that influence how we understand the world. It is about exploring how we create knowledge, how we relate to each other, how we act and how we grow. To be able to learn certain things, to shift a mindset and to ignite critical thinking, one needs to ‘unlearn’ some information and coding, to really let go of them and open space in the mind and the heart. It led me to contemplate on what I need to unlearn and let go of in order to expand my learning. Unlearn the lies we have been told…all those things that we have learned as ‘that’s the way things are’…no, the way things were different. But we are spoon-fed and almost drugged by our need for ignorant bliss and comfort and a system we ourselves created…slowly forgetting our own truth and real beauty around us.

As the day progressed today, part of me was busy with the news from London, yet another terrorist attack…not only because I have close friends living in London but also what this meant to us, as part of this globe and I remain with the questions,
‘what kind of injustice in the world ignite people to do such violence to fellow human beings’ and ‘what is my responsibility, directly or indirectly, to prevent these happening’. I know deep inside that the work I am committed to, both to grow as a compassionate being and to help create spaces where human goodness can manifest, has something to do with all of this madness. However desperate and afar the situation might seem, I feel, everyone has a role in healing part of the whole, starting with ourselves… (if you are interested in ‘unlearning’, take a look at Shikshantar’s website…they have a lot of good readings. Also, I found their monthly publication Swapathgami extremely inspiring)

If so far, nothing has made sense out of all I said about Shire, please take a look at the website which is up and running now… www.oftheshire.org
If you look careful enough, you will find my photo and short statement about why I came to Shire…

Tomorrow we have the Shire ‘vision’ day…I’ll tell you what that is in the next update…
Be well…
filiz

[1]The Berkana Institute is a global foundation supporting life-affirming leaders around the world. Since 1992, Berkana has worked with people everywhere to discover new organizational forms, processes, and leadership that affirm rather than destroy life. Berkana uses an understanding of living systems to organize in ways that are interdependent, generous, and self-organizing.

"Work is love made visible.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work
and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."
- Kahlil Gibran