A true learning day…
Lots of enthused people for the first Art of Hosting Learning Day, but finally we gathered with six – and a baby. And a learning day it was!
My body held still some sadness as I arrived, triggered by some last minute cancellations. I felt my face was closed.
We were welcomed by Rik in nature – his favorite working space – and by the sound of his flute. We stood in circle under a very old tree, hearing the sounds of working machines and closeby stood some building materials. It felt right to include them in our circle… including the ones who choose to do some ‘work’ and not to be here with us; and including the world ‘out there’…
I felt that nature, the silence and slow pace of our conversation and the music opened me up again… what a relief! My face opened up, my breathing became deeper and the smile returned on my face!
We were then invited to have a creative presentation as an answer to the question: In your wildest dreams, who – what – where do you want to host? Of we went for 20 min to let the ideas come up…
When we gathered again Sander was the first to invite us to join him in putting our nose to the window glass of the big room where he sees himself hosting leaders of the world. What did we see or hear while looking inside? This picture is what Helen saw: looking through the window, through the room, through the window on the other side, throught the garden, and through the gate and still seeing Sander’s reflection! Amasing lessons were shared from these small observations and Sander had the impression these answers were why he came all the way from the Netherlands to join us in this day.
Next was Hannelore to tell her wildest dream of having a farm and a garden connected with the Heerlijckyt, so that ‘a whole life’ experience can be offered to all visitors. She invited us in the field with the three donkeys…
Now it was Rik’s turn, and to keep his – and our – fire burning, he invited to build together a structure with some wood we could find around the place. This was an amasing experience! Nobody took the lead, the men were more collecting the sticks, women tended to build the foudation of the structure… and we managed to build something that was nice and exceptional! Again different lessons about working together, how things can emerge with no plan beforehand and lots more!
All this strenghtened my idea of how important it is to include the wholeness of knowing – all the different ways of accessing knowing.
Time for lunch!
This time we gathered around the fire-place inside, and I started harvesting on a big sheet of paper what we already got out of our conversations. If you ever were part of this kind of flowing, inspiring conversations you know it is almost impossible to capture. So rich, so many links, deep silence, building on each other, deepening our understanding together…
Some of the sentences:
We host the new world, as it emerges. Hosting means: holding the field outside the content; hosting the container for questions; hosting the process between people; hosting the trust.
We are creating the new, conscious groove.
What spoke to me the most was: We come together as hosts – without content – as the field, and this is an evolutionary, collective act and practice.
It was clear to us, after some time, that we were not here to organise something or to find a next step for some kind of action. This coming together, our search for deeper meaning, this inspiring conversation was our purpose!
Since earlier in the conversation we were talking about the history of the venue, De Heerlijckhyt van Elsmeren, where we were gathered and that we all have a strong relationship with. It was here that the first Art of Hosting happened last October. Julian remembered his first visit, when I showed him the barn that is used these days for storing wood and all the working materials. Somebody proposed to visit it right now, and of we went…
It is truly a remarkable place… a deep silence is almost tangible… an emptyness…
Rik started playing his flute, two others joined in with sound… Who is singing? Who is singing me?
The last words on the flipchart:
simplicity of love
power of silence
the mystery
as a gift
Thanks to Helen, who made so many beautiful pictures, go and visit them here! I’m pleased that I could use some of them to beautify my blogposting. The harvest team is building!