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To Travel is to Live: A Community on Wheels

Esmée Begemann and Sandie Middleton
Aug 7, 2017
3 min read

Day 18 on the road. We have arrived in the green green hills of Wales. They are so green! SO GREEN! We are making our way into this amazing landscape. Marcus described it as: ‘Painfully beautiful’.

It makes us stand and stare open-mouthed in wonder at this green world that they call Wales. We were kindly hosted at the Corris Hostel where we got an amazing room offered for all of us to stay in. The generosity of all the people who hosted us is still blowing my mind.

Asha Centre

Last week we stayed at the Asha centre to attend a 4 day conference of Love, Sex and Spirituality. The place was truly amazing. We were so warmly welcomed, taken care of and given an amazing bedroom (with incredible beds!).

Interfaith peace, respect and understanding is one of the core principles of the Asha centre. Sacred places relating to a range of different religious and spiritual beliefs are situated around the beautiful garden, stream and woods, creating a serene and inclusive environment.

I feel so much gratefulness for all the people who brought their open hearts, their honesty and their ‘mess’ with them; willing to share and to connect. The workshops and lectures brought up many topics. The more we learned, the more we came to understand how much more there is to learn.

Biodanza, shame, love in Greek mythology, polygamy/monogamy, attraction, council of stories, archetypes of love; are just a few of the workshops that were offered to us at the conference.

The Swiss Dude

‘Who is us. When you build a tribe or a movement, you’re asking people to join you. To become ‘ one of us’. That means that you need to be really clear on who ‘ us’ is. Not just who am I joining, but what does it mean to be one of you.’

- Seth Godin

Apart from the conference programme we were guided by Michael Baumgartner, who we started calling the Swiss Dude, to explore how we can effectively express our needs and take responsibility for finding solutions. He spoke of the different stages of community development, which helped us understand and negotiate some of the challenges we have faced in our Unibus community.

Polly Higgins

‘The earth is in need of a good lawyer.’

On Thursday 3rd August, we visited Polly Higgins in Stroud. Polly realised that the earth was in need of legal representation, and subsequently has worked to make ecocide (harming the earth) recognised as an international crime. She has worked tirelessly to meet and advise international leaders and organisations. She emphasised that when trying to prevent harm it is important to protect, not protest, and to do so from a place of peace.

Kite's Nest Farm

Many of us have explored how we can make changes in our personal lives to minimise our environmental impact and to avoid harm to animals or humans in the production process of food. We visited Kite’s Nest Farm to learn how they engage with environmental and welfare issues in organic farming. They gave us a warm welcome, and a tour in a trailer round their land, seeing contented cows and sheep. They name and know all their livestock, and treat them individually.

Looking Ahead

Right now we are staying at the community Felin Uchaf where we are immersing into the community life and at the same time we are becoming more and more of a community ourselves.

‘What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.’

- Kurt Vonnegut.