A Very Findhorn Way for Things to Happen
written by Mathijs Mulder-Barge
Mathijs Mulder-Barge
One of the things I've come to love about Findhorn is the diversity of stories here, from the people who've lived here for decades and by the people who've only just arrived. Many people come here through a series of synchronicities. For me it was no different.
How I got here
With my son, Suriël, in the sand dunes close to our house.
I didn't know the Findhorn community before I came here. My wife had lived here twenty years earlier, but the community itself was new to me. My own path had run through different communities - in Mexico, the Netherlands, Lanzarote and Scandinavia, and through a spiritual background of yoga, meditation, silent retreats, emotional hygiene and tantric sexology. It might not have been Findhorn, but I found a deep resonance and appreciation for the principles that have been lived here for a long time: inner listening, work as love in action and co-creation with the intelligence of nature. I might have had a different language for things, but the essence is the same.
The kind of morning light that takes my breath away during my walks through the dunes.
I came to the Ecovillage because my wife and I were looking for a place for our son to grow up, somewhere with nature and conscious community around us. We arrived in April 2024 for just a week, and I found a profound sense of recognition, walking the dunelands, by the sea, through the village and the forest. Unfortunately, just before coming to Findhorn our initial plans to buy a house fell through, but funny enough we met a couple and their young daughter in the playground and within that one week, we decided to buy a house together. Looking back, that's a very Findhorn way for things to happen.
The house we decided to buy together within our first week here, rainbow included.
Life at Findhorn now
I now live happily in the Bag End cluster, and it's been remarkable to arrive in this community at this particular time. It feels like we are helping to carry forward something that has been developing for the last sixty years. There's a real privilege in being here inside an ecovillage that is itself going through deep transformation, at the edge of the forest, the dunelands and the sea, where the connection with nature has been nurtured for so long. I get to raise my son here in safety, in community, in a loving environment, in a place where the spirit of transformation and self-empowerment is engrained in everything.
Three generations walking through the Ecovillage.
Currently I'm part of the implementation team at Findhorn Foundation SCIO, and I'm also active as Visitor Development Manager at EcoVillage Findhorn CBS. Both organisations share that their part of the transformation under way here, and part of shaping the future of this ecovillage, and in its own way, the world.
With some of the SCIO team after having just started this journey.
What excites me about living here
What excites me is what's ahead. Findhorn has held a pioneering role before when it comes to the expansion of consciousness, and there's a real energy of potential here, in the place and the people, in the possibility of being called into that way of service once more, in ways that fit these times, leaning on the heritage and experience of the place and the people.
What excites me most is the potential of all the people around the world connected through the principles and practices that surround the Findhorn Community and the Ecovillage here that continues its exploration as a beacon of light and inspiration. Even though the village has been through challenging times, I believe we are entering a next chapter of evolution for the Park Ecovillage Findhorn, uniquely positioned to continue pioneering a model of living for this age, in service to the world.
I am looking forward to welcoming you here to our community, online or in person.
With love, Mathijs
