Communicate Yourself Workshop at the Ecovillage of Sieben Linden

Dragii mei prieteni, la sfarsitul lunii noiembrie 2011 am avut parte de un cadou de Craciun pe care mi l-am dorit de mult. Am participat la un workshop organizat de Global Ecovillage Network chiar intr-unul dintre satele ecologice din Europa. Workshopul s-a numit Communicate Yourself iar satul ecologic se numeste Sieben Linden (Sapte Tei). A fost minunat! Am vazut cu ochii mei cum arata un loc in care se traieste cu respect fata de Planeta si oameni, am simtit energia unei comunitati bazate pe iubire si compasiune si am invatat cum sa comunic din inima. Am scris acest articol in limba engleza pentru ca este o limba potrivita experientelor interculturale si pentru ca doresc sa impartasesc aceasta experienta si dincolo de ranitele lingvistice ale Romaniei.

Dear friends, I am going to tell you all about something really special for me, an experience that was as rich as it was uplifting. It was my early Christmas gift for 2011 and it turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving.

It all happened in a fairy-tale place disguised as your ordinary day-to-day Ecovillage, so we’ll ‘just’ call it an ecovillage. The name of this beautiful place is Sieben Linden (it is in Germany ) and that’s where I participated to the Workshop called “Communicate Yourself”. The workshop was organized by GEN aka the Global Ecovillage Network, in partnership with the community of Sieben Linden.

Now, before we go any further I want to paint a clearer picture of Sieben Linden. Located in a rural area where the border between the two Germanies used to be, it is surrounded by quiet villages, fields and the ever green pine dominated forests. On your way there, the last village you pass through is called Poppau – which has a reputation derived from myths and legends, of being the center of the world. Might not be, who knows, but there is a faint suggestion that there is something magical right around the corner.

Place

What’s around the corner? Well, yes there is a ‘corner’ and then there is a simple looking gravel road and what at first glance appears to be just a bunch of normal buildings and wagon-carts melting into the pine and oak forest on the left (with some linden trees too), and some fields and hedges on the right. But stepping a bit further you get to the centre of village-life: the Regio-House. It is a revitalized farm building that now embodies the kitchen and eating area, the library, guest-rooms, a big and comfy conference/ workshop loft and all the other facilities you might need to run ‘a tidy ship’. I loved the place, it is straw-bale covered with cob painted white and lined into this amazing massive wooden frame, brought alive by the charming woodwork and wooden floors. There is living proof exhibited everywhere that a joyful community calls this place home. 

In the 7 days I was in Sieben Linden I learned about ‘simple luxury’: it is when one benefits from all the things appreciated to be the comforts of modern life while at the same time remembering the purpose of the comfort and the toll that over indulgence carries on us and the planet. So, there is always hot running water, there is a smart dish-washing machine, a sauna, a bar, a water purification device, there are computers and internet, fridges, and just about anything you might need. But there is sharing and common use; there are only organic hygiene products, low energy consumption appliances, compost toilets and lots of other details.

On the outside there are a lot of houses and wagon carts. The houses are made of wood and straw-bale, actually Sieben Linden is the community that has built the largest straw-bale house in Europe. The level of craftsmanship and the love put into the building process are really impressive. It is people friendly (child-friendly implicitly) and it is a gesture of respect for nature. Just some figures: according to a study conducted by the University of Kassel in 2006, Sieben Linden scored 72% lower in its carbon footprint compared to the German average. There is a lot of manual labour involved and they don’t use the heavy machinery that you would normally find at a building site, but there are a lot of details and innovations that make the work smarter and not harder. Oh, and did I mention that it’s also a community thing – the building process generates much more family bonding and friendship than the building of a regular household.

There is also a high-tech element to all the straw-bale, wood-stoves and hand made things. The first high tech elements you notice are the impressive arrays of solar panels. Basically Sieben Linden exports energy to the grid in the hot season and draws some in during winter. But there is a lot more than meets the eye: huge storage tanks built into the walls in order to conserve heat for the winter days when the Sun is too shy to shine. The buildings are all passive solar and face the south with a glaring display of triple-layered windows that let the heat of the sunlight seep into the specially built inner walls only to radiate out again during the nights. Not all houses are the same though; there is a lot of diversity and signs of progress through experimentation.

There is a nice organic/permaculture garden, a reef bed pond for purifying grey water, a stable with horses, carts, ploughs and even a nice wagon. There is a wild area and some beautiful retreats. There are flower and herb spirals all around intermingled with hedges and young saplings. There is a car pool; there are lots of bikes and beautiful paths for walking through the village and the extending forest.

People

It is a community of about 125 people, among which around 35 are children, so taking into account that it is among a small group of places in the region with demographic growth I’d say there is definitely a higher than average ‘love factor’. There is a forest kindergarten and a special room where kids can eat and play (sometimes kids need to mix the two activities), there are playgrounds and a lot of space to run around. But in spite of this statistic, the community has a nice spread among all age groups, nationalities, professions, and characters. 

But what I really loved about Sieben Linden, and this is something you can’t find in a permaculture manual, were the people that made up the community and their spirit. Honesty, love, joyfulness, a laid-back patient attitude and a warmth that one rarely experiences in our usual ‘normal-world’ social setting. It makes you feel so comfortable and empowered to be yourself that it takes some time to get used to (not to long though). There is always someone to talk to, nobody intrudes or interferes, you feel respected and you love showing gratitude for it. 

There are many events organized throughout the year: workshops, festivals and open Sundays where people from outside come and visit. They do a lot of different things and there is a constant flux of visitors. The community is well accustomed to this and is excellently prepared to handle it.

There is also growth of the community itself and a process of becoming part of it. There are partnerships and friendships with other ecovillages in Europe and around the world and I will even go as far as to say that the Sieben Linden community is far larger and considerably more spread out than the village itself.

Practices

The community is very well organized. There are several organizational entities that are in charge of different aspects like: land and infrastructure, neighbourhoods, workshops, agriculture and others. People there have to put in 4 hours of community work per week but everybody pitches in voluntarily whenever it’s needed. There is always a lot going on and its living proof that not being tied to a 9 to 5 doesn’t mean that you lay around all day. Much of the work that needs to be done is done by members but there is also help from outside. Things also work the other way around as people from Sieben Linden reach out to the outside world professionally or otherwise. 

There are decision making structures which are both as inclusive and as efficient as reasonably possible. They have evolved since the birth of the community and reflect its growth. But there are also circles of sharing like the Forum and many diverse social initiatives ranging from arts exhibitions, yoga classes, open bar nights and others. Of course there are special roles and statuses, personal affinities, age or personal interest groups but the openness and loving spirit makes room for all. Just to make it short: there is enough personal freedom and fulfilling community spirit to foster personal growth and collective well-being.

Communicate Yourself Workshop 2011

The workshop was part of the amazing work done by GEN – the Global Ecovillage Network. This organization is a network of sustainable communities and initiatives that grow out of positive intent, mutual respect and openness. It branches out through the entire world: from Africa to Australia and From Asia to South America. The purpose is to create a framework for sharing, supporting and growing together in ways that benefit those involved as well as the Planet and human society in general.

The Workshop

I expected the course to be powerful and filled with ‘how-to’s’ and ‘step-by-step’s’. After applying I was ready for a lot of learning of new terms, methods and concepts but generally I was under the impression that I was going to receive something like a speech giving training coupled with ways of settling disputes and talking to groups. I wasn’t really that far from the truth but the fact of the matter is that reality still surprised me, so much so that by the time it was over I felt like a brand new rediscovered self, endowed with permanent change. 

So what did happen you ask? I’m laughing now just thinking of what could be passing through your mind. Well it was all hands on: we were sitting on chairs arranged in a circle in the beautiful loft of Regio House and learning from the amazing facilitators Kosha Joubert and Martin Stengel while they enlightened us with simple truths and amazing insights which they then demonstrated practically and made room for all of us to learn by doing. There were a lot of practical exercises – at least half of the time. Some were simple and seemed childish like the one where we split in pairs and yelled ‘tiger tiger burning bright’ at each other, making sure the other person heard us, while we were moving further and further away (imagine all 26 people doing it simultaneously). But we learnt a lot about how we communicate - I assure you, and everything we did fitted into a broader perspective. There were also more impressive things we learned about, like the Forum which is basically the same circle of chairs; the space in the middle is a stage where anyone from the circle can briefly share something from deep within. The purpose is to hold a space where everyone is viewed as another expression of what it is to be human, where we do not judge or label, where the one on stage expresses himself and reveals himself in order to grow and to teach. We all learned a lot about what a community feels like and about collective wisdom, we felt such a deep friendship and a powerful unity that even from the first days we all started facing the edges of our own inner selves and started to see how the group may nurture and support personal growth and development. 

We learned about non-violent communication NVC, about the five natural elements in communication, about the inner coach that we all have and how we can be ‘outer coaches’ for others without leading but rather helping them lead themselves. We wrote poems and made clay sculptures in order to explore our future selves, we organized and manifested sessions of World Café and Open Space, we shared thoughts, ideas and knowledge, we gave and received advice, hugs and thanks. We played together, ate together, learned, took decisions, solved conflicts and prayed together – we lived as a community. Such was the spirit of community within our group that we called it ‘the living energy of the group’, we felt it and decided to keep it alive and share it wherever we may be even after the 7 day-lifecycle would end.

In the final evening we all had our moments in the spotlight, it was a ceremony of gratitude (a party), where under the enchanting directions of the 2 masters of ceremony – Martin and Vitalia, we enjoyed stand up/down comedy routines, short videos about this spectacular world, one-man shows (thank you Peter), plays, dances, emotional songs about the Earth and mankind, poems, stories, ceremonies for the soul, breathing exercises (very good after all the laughing) and lots of kinds of wonderful food from many of the 16 countries represented at the workshop.

What did I really get from the Workshop?

I got a glimpse into the future and saw what human community united in a spirit of love and joy felt like. I have no idea how and when this ‘future’ will be fulfilled – but I know that we all create our own futures and together we contribute to that of the collective. I saw a little bit of what is possible and through the diversity of those present I felt that there are a lot of other beautiful examples out there. So the question that stuck with me is ‘how do you want to live and what are you doing to make it happen?’

The Linden Seed

We all learned about ourselves and what we’re capable of, individually and as groups. We saw the impact of love, respect and honesty in the energy of our group and how it allowed us to overcome our edges and we loved it. So as I mentioned we all decided to take this energy – the Linden Seed – into the world. And so we did, everywhere we went we shared it. I am so happy every time I read an email from someone from the group talking about how they helped to settle a conflict or shared an exercise or technique or just learned something more about him/her self.

Waving hello to our future selves.

I will finish this very dear sharing by thanking all the people who made this experience possible and express my gratitude for having met such marvellous human beings. I hope that by writing this down I was able to share at least a little Linden seed with you and reconnect with those with whom I shared the experience of that beautiful week.

My little Linden Seed planted back home.

Still burning bright,

Andrei.