Preparing Intergenerational Gathering

Axladtisa - Today was our first preparation day for the intergeneration gathering. A day of physical preparation and also process design. Before it became too hot, we all arranged different practical jobs: fixed a shower on the camping ground, cleaned and fixed the eco-toilets, arranged a space for 'stuff' of alsmost 30 people, worked on the damaged road, made some food... Thisi took us to lunch and then to the beach. After some swiming and play we gathered in the local taverna - with beer or wine - and looked at the design of the five days.

The overall question that we are gathering around seems to become: What is the next level of pioneering?

As the talking piece passed around and everyone shared his or her ideas, passions and worries I saw already some elements of the answer.  We could all name it in one word maybe; Integration. Another way of naming is: living wholeness.

Here are the elements that I saw appearing.

•  First was mentioned: the celebration and joy. This is the 10th anniversary of Pioneers of Change, we are in Greece and it is still summer here then why not integrate time at the beach with the more serious conversations? Isn't it time to integrate 'the work' and 'the joy'?

• And let us not separate the cooking and cleaning from the rest of 'the work'! It is all work needed to let the community flow and work in a smooth, natural and efficient way. This had also to do with everyone taking ownership of the shared space, be it the physical, the emotional or the energetic space. It is a community practce, which we have to re-learn and integrate again, separated as we are in our Western style world.

• There was also a strong voice to make 'a' morning practice part of the gathering, and not something that is happening at the fringe, only attented by a few. This idea  let to a mom offering the greating of the sun, and her daughter offering some meditatioin afterwards.

• Another patterns was the emphasis on harvesting from this gathering to people who are not here. Two young women want to put little videoclips on YouTube, if the internet connection allows it. Of course lots of people are taking pictures, and there is this blogging...

• We also decided to work with different areas and levels of hosting. There is the hosting of the physical space - from kitchen, over campground and groups spaces; there is the 'normal' hosting - crafting the questions and the flow of conversatioins and whatever needs to happen on one day; and there is the dayhost(s). They are the ones who keep an eye on the whole, take the bigger look of the whole gathering, deal with questions that the hosting team can't take on and are available whenever the hosting team needs support or some checking. Not only are there different areas and levels ofhosting, we will also have a system of 'passing the baton'. Every day can be hosted by a different hosting team and dinner or evening time will be used to align the previous and the next.