Life at Findhorn

A great thing about living in such a large community (I know that the 500 or so souls who call this place home may not seem like a major conurbation to any Londoners reading this blog, but it is large by the standard of most ecovillages) is the scale of diversity that it affords. The place often feels like a small village that believes itself to be an unusually dynamic, ... read more

I have just watched an excellent movie called The Carbon Connection. The film focuses on two communities, in Scotland and Brazil, which find themselves on opposite sides of a carbon trade deal.

The town of Grangemouth near Glasgow lives cheek by jowl with a huge BP refinery, that has bought the right to continue polluting by buying carbon credits through the planting of eucalyptus stands in Brazil.

The ... read more

I want to devote my blog this week to an extraordinary development unfolding in a poor, multi-ethnic, working-class neighbourhood some 6,000 miles from here – in inner-city Los Angeles.

Why on Earth would I do that is a column called Life At Findhorn?! Well, first because we are part of a much larger global family, one of whose members, the Los Angeles Ecovillage, is engaged in quite wonderfully ... read more

Spring has arrived, it seems. The daffodils are pushing up in my garden. Normally I would be pleased — new life, growth, all of that — but the spectre of global warming dampens my enjoyment. It feels too early. I am concerned about global warming though worrying about it will not keep it at bay - and I am also glad that the days are getting longer, the air ... read more

In recent weeks there has been a series of meetings organised by the Foundation and the New Findhorn Association (NFA), on community building. The theme of the latest was Leadership. I did not go to this meeting, so I will not write about it - but it has got me thinking about leadership in the community and how it’s perceived.

Leadership is a word that comes up often here. ... read more

In this community of varied and unusual dwellings, my favourite is the house of my friend, Craig Gibsone. Craig; an artist, potter and Ecovillage trainer has lived at Findhorn since the 60s. He started building his house sometime around 1986 and been has constantly adding to it ever since. It's still not finished. Maybe never will be.

This house is one of the cluster of barrel houses that have ... read more

When Jonathan asked me to fill in for him again, I had just come out of a workshop called The Game of Transformation.

This workshop is possibly the most imaginative and original workshops offered by the Findhorn Foundation.

The Game of Transformation is just that — a game. Dice are rolled, pieces are moved, and players move towards an objective. The difference between this and other games is ... read more

The whole holiday period seems, on reflection, to glow in the illumination of candle-light. This far north, the nights are long and dark and a deeply intimate energy settles over the community during the solstice period – all lit with the magical light of bonfires and candles.

On the solstice itself, each of us walked a spiral, candle in hand, walking our way out of the old year into ... read more

In my seven years here, I don’t remember it being as cold as it has been this last week. The temperature has dropped into double-digit negative and the ice-sheets extend way out into Findhorn Bay. At night the shifting ice sets up a creaking, cracking cacophony out in the darkness of the bay while the over-wintering geese rail and keen in response. A wild and eerie winter soundscape. The short ... read more

Let me introduce you to Michael. Now in his early 30s, Michael spent the first 18 years of his life here in Findhorn before heading off to the US to seek his fortune and see how the world might look when viewed through different lenses.

Barely a day passed, however, when he did not think about the community where he grew up. And, in early 2002, just in ... read more

It was with a happy thud that a package landed on my doormat this week providing me with the news that my application to run the London marathon next spring has been successful. (Applications outnumber places available so heavily that it is possible to wait for years to get the thumbs us. This is just my second year in the queue and I am well chuffed.)

So, I am set ... read more

So, last week, I left the Findhorn Foundation dangling over the edge of a cliff (in the form of an £800,000 debt) and torn between divine guidance and economic discipline as escape strategies, with its bankers getting twitchy. In fact – I am afraid it is always thus with cliff-hanging episode-enders – the camera angle made the situation look more perilous than it actually was.

Though by 2000 the ... read more