In the Netherlands we have a saying: ‘Under an old beech nothing grows.’ That problem is solved. In the storms of the past week the beautiful old beech in the garden of our office (Landgoed Duinlust) came down. It is already cut into pieces and the deer seem to have adjusted themselves to the new situation. One place less to hide from the sunshine during summer.
This morning I had a nice check-in with my colleagues about the year 2012. The Mayans thought already a few years ago that this would be the year of transformation. Could be the 21 of December: “This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.” But scholars don’t agree if there was such a prediction by the Mayas. Could be some New Age interpretation as well. Time will tell.
For sure it will be an interesting year where we are keen to find new solutions for the problems we’re facing. The old models don’t work anymore. With Cordes we celebrate our 25th anniversary. We celebrate this by diving into the world after the crisis. We will do this in the form of round table discussions out of different viewpoints: culture, art, psychology, society, economy etc. We are going to inquire into a future we want to make happen together. What is the highest potential after the crisis? What does the world look like we want to live in? Paul Gilding’s book ‘The great disruption’ is one of our starting points.
UNOO celebrates it’s third anniversary in October. Every time when it’s full moon (as it was last night) I find myself back in Knoydart Scotland, lying under a full moon in my bivvy bag in the rain together with my new partners. The past years have brought me a lot in the form of new friendships, new type of work and a new longing within myself. I’m looking forward to bring that to a next step before it’s December. The old tree has made room so now it’s time to let the new grow and make this the year of transformation.