Memories of Erraid 2015

There isn't much news online in 2015 about Erraid, its residents or visitors but a search through youtube surfaced this video taken around the time I was on the island.

I sometimes find myself wandering around Erraid in my memory, tasting the smell of Val's baking bread and hearing the rooster again outside my cottage window calling me to the day.

Takeaway - Reflection

Thinking about Erraid this week wondering how it is doing, perhaps it's the news from the IPCC that has started a train of thought.

Takeaway #1: Presence (update)

After Embercombe this week, this Takeaway was updated as follows:

We spend most of our lives preferring to live in a past that was or wasn't what was wanted, or in the future of what may or may not be.

Being present is about living now with "pace and grace".

Takeaway #7: Spirituality

Whilst struggling to light the Rayburn, I turned to a copious supply of Findhorn 2011 catalogues to help me get a flame going.

Looking through it I just hadn't realised how diverse and expensive the spirituality market has become.

Rather than Jesus wanting us to be a moonbeam, faith has been replaced by Sunday visits to Ikea altars, astrological star charts, shamanistic, dream catching, sacred dancing, 5Rhythming®, angel speaking and awakening the white goddess within through mythodrama.

Interleave these courses with copious use of the word 'spirituality' as you handover £400-£3,000 so you can dance with Abigail, Tituba and Mercey in the forest.

The inner city families I meet through the Kids Company charity don't have that sort of money to spend on their monthly shopping bill, but there is no shortage of people with the time, disposable income and angst driving them to courses clutching their Visa cards.

Takeaway #6: Destinations

It's been a full week now since I returned to London and I'm still pondering the takeaways from my fortnight at Erraid.

A big one that keeps punching through is the unexpected spectacular and natural beauty in this part of Scotland.

Large empty sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, fresh air and glacial topography.

Friendly locals and the absence of mass holiday makers means I will probably return for a closer look at Mull and other islands.

Takeaway #5: Transformation

Some of the visitors over the fortnight had discovered and played Findhorn's Transformation Game® with success telling us about it one morning.

Intrigued I read the rules of the game (which are complex) and these require you determine a  key issue in your life before you play the game.

Gameplay will then generate various insights into your key issue.

After a day wandering around the cliffs and beaches of the island I concluded I really didn't have any key issues that the game could help me with, at first wondering if that was a key issue, but felt I would be ill served by the game if it gave me one I didn't know I had.

It was a welcome conclusion that my life is good and does not want intervention, although just a little disappointed that I won't satisfy my curiosity and play The Transformation Game.

Takeaway #4: Sustainability

Whilst The Dignity of Labour makes for a good song title, I assure you that spending hours in a garden weeding can be slow back-breaking work.

Erraid, despite a regular flow of willing visitors and rainfall, cannot sustain itself with sufficient wood or organic veg and needs to ship in sacks of food and logs from the mainland throughout the year.

If you want to do away with oil, tractors, chainsaws, combine harvesters, transportation, nuclear power, weed-killer and GM resistant veg affordable to the masses, then the world is going to have to starve or reduce its population.