A short week could never be enough, though it had to be.
An opportunity appeared and as a 2/4: Hermit/Opportunist in Human Design…!
I’m so glad I did.
To have got to be a visitor to a place… to a healing biome… where regenerative culture has been… and is in …process, involving so many people, coming and going… for five years, with resources to build with… to get to visit there has been a deep and inspiring pleasure.
To have been so cleanly welcomed, trusted, seen and made use of… made it vastly satisfying and fulfilling.
To got to see, in myself, the effects of my accumulated years of experience… engaging in many kids of community hubs, farms, gardens, permaculture set-ups, ashrams…pop up villages… microcosms of village… wow, I’m one lucky spring chicken.
I was asked for my perspective, opinion, insight, for hugs and supportive presence. I was gifted food, flowers, affection and… most precious to me of all… trust.
I got to give of my hands and back, my elbow grease and know-how, of my cooking, cleaning and gardening abilities, of my wisdom and my digestive system (yay for peeing on the land and pooping in composting toilets! It’s always so good to encounter them more places!)
While I was on Salt Spring Island, (for this is where I spent that week), I also got to visit with my longest-standing friend (we met as toddlers), and meet, in person, someone who has become a very, very close friend and trusted counsel.
I got to be a napping-place for a baby, around whom deep intention for Village swirls, and I got to be witness and space holder to a king as he released.
I got to touch in with other-than-humans of a diversity of kinds; the ocean, towering firs, seals, farm plants, the spirit of coastal BC; and I gained space and perspective on my own village microcosm at Awakening House Temporary Permaculture Ashram back home in Calgary. (They did so great while I was away!)
It’s all been one big delicious …appetizer!?
I trust I’ll be back in the not-too-distant future.
Not to live, because, as many of you know, I’m devoted to exampling village food/energy and housing security in a place where harsh winter visits (and it visited Calgary while I was away!)
But I anticipate that I will return to touch in again, to build my connections with the extraordinary souls of and orbiting this phenomenon called Aloha Aina.
In my opinion, this is the Tamera of North America (by all means, if you have a candidate to *contest that claim, let us all know!)
All this I share with a huge appreciation to Laryssa, who opened the way for me to journey there, transported me bodily there AND back, and was delicious, engaging, nourishing company the whole darn time. I am blessed to have this bright soul adventurer in my life, who goes away and comes back with insights and stories and evidence of transformational influences and healing biotopes far away.
Soon she will be sharing from her experiences visiting Tamera, the healing biotope and permaculture and peace research community in Portugal from which Aloha gleans much wisdom, insight and informative example.
*contest: etymological roots ‘to witness together’
Nicole Bradford