A Tale of How Doing & Being Came to Work Together

Once, in a town that was not too big and not too small, with a river running through it and a steep, steep high street with a castle at the top, there was a man, who was known as Rob of the great renown, who had a story to tell...

And many of you know this tale, for it is one that has been told many times, far and wide across the lands, and across the oceans too. It is a tale of hope in adversity, fun in the face of challenge, resilience in the face of change. It is the story of how we noticed the oil was not going to last forever, that the weather was changing, that our trading systems were cracking, and it is a story of great community response and the remembering of what it really is that makes us happy; seeing all of our children grow strong and resilient, happy and adaptable, the touch of the hand of a loved one, friends, or a stranger, the smile of an elder, the warmth of an animal’s body, it is the joy of working together to preserve what really matters to us all, regardless of our politics, philosophy, life story, and belief systems.

The story took hold like no other story in living memory. Soon there were men and women, boys and girls, all over the earth gathering together to help make the changes they knew were ready to happen.

And pretty soon they all started meeting and sharing what they were doing, not only in their towns and cities, but once a year some would travel to meet and exchange their stories. On the island where Rob of the great renown, Ben the White Raven, the Great Farmer, and all those other characters that made this story begin were living, some of these gatherings were held. First they met in the south, in Cirencester, then more met in the city of Nottingham, and yet more in the south east settlement of Battersea, they met in the south west near the small town of Newton Abbot, and then one year, they decided to meet in the North West, in Liverpool...

Time had passed, much had happened, a storyteller name of WynnAlice had set out to walk the land. For 6 whole moons she had walked, from the time of sowing to the time of gathering, and collected tales from the south, the east, the north and the west of their land.

Community gardens, orchards, farms, coops, had sprung up all over the land, and across the oceans too. Wind power, solar power, bicycles, donkeys and walkers began to appear more and more across the landscape. The Gaskateers were transforming street lighting, and artists were gathering everywhere and showing how it was. Things were a changing...

And some people in some places began to notice a thing that had been overlooked, for a time, by some, and that it had an effect on them, they had forgotten a very important skill... a skill once so integral to everyday life that no one gave it a second thought, that of communicating with one another.

Little by little as the courageous pioneers built and created new ways of living they saw that there was one challenge that was very close to home, so close to home in fact, that for some it was quite invisible... the challenge of recognising that some were skilled in being, and some in doing, and not always was it that the two understood the importance of the other in bringing about the changes that were needed.

And so it was that those who were courageous chose to bring this challenge to the gathering, the challenge that there are always two ways of responding, and the tension that builds between the two when one or other was given more importance than the other. Some recognised that this was not only a dilemma in their groups, but also within themselves, that some of them spent so much time doing they didn’t know who they were anymore, and others so much time being that they didn’t know how to speak up and act anymore, and that the key to it all was to communicate well, and learn from one another.

And in their world of email, text, & twitter they had quite forgotten that time spent relating how it is to be in this world of ours, time enough to explore what that meant, time enough to learn that that was time well spent, was time saved in conflict further down the road...

And so the brave band of transitionistas gathered, in all their diverse colours, shades, and characters, to learn to communicate again, from their deepest held beliefs to another’s, to celebrate the different skills, the different perspectives , the different strands of wisdom, and to test out those beliefs, against a new backdrop of changing times, prepared to be surprised, prepared to think anew, prepared to accept the gifts that the other brought to their lives.

A new chapter of the story was unfolding, how did those courageous ones face their weaknesses, the parts of them that were not allowed out very often, and bring them into everyday use, and how did those pioneers of a new way begin to learn from those that had never lost the skills of community, those that understood that each role plays their part in the whole, and each is to be equally valued, and that time spent communicating was the key to strong and resilient communities?

Why not be one of those brave pioneers and join us in Liverpool (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/conference-2011-uk) in finding those answers....