In this issue:
From the Four Directions is a global leadership initiative of the Berkana Institute.
- We dream of a world where every organization, whether in business, government, or public benefit, knows how to bring out the best in us humans: our creativity, our caring, our desire for peace and health.
- We believe that changes must come from citizens and leaders working in their own communities across the planet.
- We support the work of life-affirming leaders (a leader is anyone who wants to help) in finding their clarity and courage to lead on behalf of the issues that most concern them.
- We work around the globe to organize local conversation circles on life-affirming leadership. Citizens and leaders name their hopes and challenges, learn from colleagues, and act courageously to move their hopes into reality.
- We network local conversations into a global presence of "people everywhere leading the way" to a future of possibility and promise for all.
News
This is a new section for our newsletter. We will use it now and in
the future to highlight some of the latest happenings in From the Four
Directions. More complete descriptions will be available on the From
the Four Directions website.
Our revised website is a highlight this month. We recently completed revisions that:
-
bring the website a bit more up to date
- create direct email access to people who are hosting From the Four Directions circles
- offer a structure through which we can more easily share stories, reports, questions, patterns, trends, and resources that are surfacing in the From the Four Directions network.
We are growing. So is our capacity to support our growing and connecting.
Leadership
Story – My Dream of Creating a Learning Village
Marianne Knuth
From the Four Directions Circle Host and Berkana Board Member
Ruwa, Zimbabwe
Kufunda Village
is a learning initiative in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, aimed at the creation of locally
rooted solutions to community self-reliance challenges, through the use
of people's own imagination, collaboration and resources. At Kufunda,
"we work towards recovering, developing and living practices, initiatives
and social systems that work in accordance with Life, with all its constituent
freedoms, fullness, values and essence," says founder Marianne Knuth.
Marianne is a young woman (31) of Danish and Zimbabwean origin. She has
been involved in From the Four Directions since it began - she helped
give birth to the initiative, she found and supported people to participate
in our practicums, she hosted circles, and she currently serves on Berkana's
Wisdom Board. Marianne's life-affirming leadership has inspired many.
Much of Marianne's story can be seen at http://www.kufunda.org/.
The following from Beverly Reeler, one of Kufunda's co-facilitators, captures
some of that story.
The planet has turned,
the thrush has changed her song
the days grow longer
hotter
drier
This is not
a comfortable season
it is what comes before the yet distant rains.
The Kufunda
community has travelled a long journey
From defining themselves from a place of poverty
they have begun to claim their wealth
made compost and permaculture
painted their rooms
polished their floors
welded hangers
made tables
cooked
made fires
written their stories
brought water from the well
sung, danced,
played drums, and mbiras and marimbas
They have moved from looking at themselves
to looking at their communities
to looking at their traditional cultures
and back to themselves.
In the first
week they had written up a list of agreements
on how to live together.
It contained
all the right ingredients for a community to work:
respect - for others and the nature around them
responsibility
equal job sharing
listening without judgement
working with love and caring
honesty
punctuality
Last week they
heard, from three of the elders of their traditional culture
that all of these agreements are an integral part of their tradition
They watched a video on Ladakh
and saw all these values echoed by a traditional culture
on the other side of the world.
They were fired with new visions
This is the
last week of the first month
they have two weeks break before the next months programme
In a circle
where three and a half weeks ago
people were finding it hard to speak
They were firing ideas back and forth
with confidence and humour
On Tuesday we went back to their agreements:
for when building a new community
the foundations have to be sound.
Where they
realistic?
We made a list of those that had been the hardest to keep
and those that had been the most important
(I knew I was
in Africa when the most difficult one was punctuality!)
Should we throw it out? - a resounding no!
They spoke
about how hard it was to listen without judgement
- about what they had learned about respect
- about gender equality
- the difficulty of honesty
- the importance of responsibility
- the importance of community
Next term will
be the time for growing
and they got donated a computer
so they are ready to speak on their web site
Life shifts through different seasons.
Zimbabwe presently
hangs in suspension
poised
waiting the long wait
for the rain
building unseen roots into the soil
composting
waiting
for the new growing.
REALIZING
THE SIGNIFICANCE
By Suzanne Duarte, Circle Host in Amsterdam, Netherlands
(written March 14, 2002 while on route to Hungary for a gathering
of From the Four Directions)
Realizing the
Significance
of Our Time in History
makes all the difference
between acting on behalf
of the future, or not.
To realize
the significance
of our time in history
is to remind ourselves
what we're here for.
We aren't here
to perpetuate the past!
We're here
to create
a different kind of future.
We're here in this time,
this lifetime,
to realize we have a choice.
We don't HAVE
to believe
that "things have always
been this way,"
that human nature
is violent and greedy,
that there's nothing we can do
to change the way things are.
Who told you
that, anyway?
What if it isn't true?
What if the world is waiting
for you to wake up
to far grander possibilities
than your private pleasures
and miseries?
What if the
future is counting on you
to make its potentials possible?
What if the continued existence
of millions of plants
and animals
and children
depends on your waking up
to the significance of our time?
What if the
sixth great extinction
can be stopped cold in its tracks
simply by waking up
to the aliveness of every living thing?
What if all
of evolution
has striven to bring humans
to this very point -
the realization that
another world is possible,
that we have a choice,
and the future depends on it?
As species
lay dying,
can you look them in the eye,
and say, "Oh, well,
things have always been this way"?
Or will you
open your heart
to future generations
of all beings,
because you know:
this is the Turning Point,
the Time of the Great Turning,
and you are here
for the Great Work
of birthing and caring for
a future worth living in,
a future worth living for?
The From the Four Directions Network now includes more than 1,500 people in more than 30 countries. We would love to have you join us in this work. There are many ways to be involved:
- start a From the Four Directions circle
- participate in a circle
- make a donation
- contribute resources
- explore more learning together
- join our listserve (for those who had this newsletter forwarded to them or who found it on our website)
The From the Four Directions Newsletter is published monthly. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and stories. Please visit http://www.fromthefourdirections.org/, email info@fromthefourdirections.org, or call us in the United States at 801 377 2996.